Breakdown and heartbreak

LONDON, August 14
Usain Bolt’s unparalleled career ended in extraordinary drama on Saturday as he pulled up with injury on the anchor leg of his very last race, the 4×100 metres relay final at the World Championships. The 30-year-old had taken the baton for Jamaica a few metres adrift of the two leaders when, straining hard to catch them, he stopped abruptly with cramp in his left hamstring, began hobbling and tumbled to a halt after a forward roll.
As Britain and the US went on to win gold and silver, Bolt lay on his back in his lane, his head in hands, being tended to by medics as one waited with a wheelchair to help push him off the track. Yet the sport’s greatest entertainer was determined that one of the finest careers in sport was not going to end with him in a wheelchair.
So the fastest man of all-time, surrounded by his three worried teammates, Omar McLeod, Julian Forte and Yohan Blake, rose gingerly to his feet and limped the last 30 metres to the line.
The official result recorded that the Jamaicans did not finish but Bolt had been absolutely determined to ensure he completed the last race after a matchless career in which he won 19 major championship gold medals.
Typically, Bolt’s only thoughts were with the teammates he felt he had let down.
“He kept apologising to us but we told him there was no need to apologise,” Forte said. “Injuries are part of the sport.”
Kevin Jones, the Jamaican team doctor, said Bolt had suffered cramp in his left hamstring. Blake was angry at having to wait for two medal ceremonies to take place before the race.
“It was 40 minutes and two medal presentations before our run… we were kept 40 minutes. It was crazy,” Blake said. “They were holding us too long. We keep warming up and waiting, then warming up and waiting. I think it got the better of us.”
With the 56,000-strong crowd going wild about the British victory, there was still time for them to hail the sport’s favourite performer, who waved to them a mite forlornly while hobbling away from the track.
Five years ago, almost to the very night, British distance running hero Mo Farah had broken into Bolt’s lightning bolt pose in this same stadium and the Jamaican had reciprocated with the Briton’s trademark “Mobot” to mark their joyous supremacy at the London Olympics. Yet in the same stadium on Saturday, they attempted in vain to reprise that triumphant night, Farah ending up with silver in his final track race, over 5,000 metres, and Bolt suffering his anti-climactic farewell.
Edris ends Mo’s invincibility
Farah’s aura of invincibility after six years of unrelenting success was finally cracked as he lost his 5,000m title to Ethiopia’s Muktar Edris.
Seeking a fitting end to his matchless long-distance racing career before moving to marathon running, the 34-year-old Briton’s bid for a fifth straight global 10,000/5,000m double was scuppered as he had to settle for the silver. In a thrilling finale featuring four athletes careering towards the line, Farah snatched back second place behind Edris, who clocked 13 minutes 32.79 seconds after a searing final lap of 52.6 seconds.
“I gave it all but I had nothing left at the end,” a crestfallen and emotional Farah said. “It’s been a long journey but it’s been incredible. It doesn’t quite sink in until you compete here and cross the line — I had a couple of minutes to myself — that this is it.
It was a glorious win for 23-year-old Ethiopian Edris, the fastest man in the world this year, who had lost all his five previous meetings with Farah. “I was highly prepared for this race and I knew I was going to beat Mo Farah,” Edris said. “After the 10km he was maybe tired so he did not have enough for the last kick. I was stronger.”
Kenyan-born American Paul Chelimo claimed bronze in 13:33.30.

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