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IAAF World Championships

Usain Bolt Wins 4th 200m World Title, Gets Taken Out By Segway

Usain Bolt Wins 4th 200m World Title, Gets Taken Out By Segway

Aug 27, 2015 by Lincoln Shryack
Usain Bolt Wins 4th 200m World Title, Gets Taken Out By Segway
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BEIJING - With his rivalry with Justin Gatlin finally settled for this season, world record holder Usain Bolt proved yet again that he can be stopped by no man, so long as that man is not operating a camera and riding a segway.
 
After torching the field in the World Championship 200m final in 19.55, easily defeating American Justin Gatlin who was a distant second in 19.74, Bolt took his usual celebratory victory lap to soak in his fourth consecutive 200m World title. 
 
As he interacted with the Beijing crowd, who were thrilled to witness another breathtaking performance from the greatest sprinter to ever live, Bolt was unintentionally run over by a camera-wielding man riding on a segway, bringing the massive Jamaican to the ground as the cameraman himself went tumbling to the track. The left wheel of the vehicle hit a rail as the man tried to get a better view of Bolt, causing the segway to slide under the big Jamaican.



It was a scary moment for both men, but for the mighty Bolt, not even the frightening spill could keep him down for long. The 29-year-old popped up from the collision unharmed just seconds after the crowd gasped in horror. 
“It took me out pretty well, but I’m okay so I’m happy about it,” Bolt said. “I checked to make sure he was okay because I think he got the worst of it because he was off balance, he was falling backwards, not sure if he hit his head, but I’m just happy that he’s okay. I’m fine,” he said.
 
 
It’s 2015, so this bizarre moment will serve to delight social media for eons to come, but the real drama had already taken place before Bolt went down with the Jamaican flag draped around his neck, although his placing in the men’s 200m final in Beijing was hardly dramatic once the gun fired.

The 29-year-old Bolt, twice a 200m Olympic champion and the three-time defending World champion in the event entering tonight, blasted out of the blocks from the start of the race, leaving the 2015 world leader Gatlin scrambling to catch up. His efforts to catch the powerful Bolt would prove fruitless, however, as the Jamaican was able to cruise across the line in quite possibly the easiest 19.55 ever run.  

When asked what he thought he could have run if he had pressed to the line, Bolt said "if I had run hard through the line, I probably would've run 19.3-low."

Just the thought of this is simply spectacular when one considers where Bolt has come from this season. Tonight was only his second sub-20 200 of the season as injury slowed his progression leading up to these championships. His season's best of 19.95 entering tonight was run just yesterday in the semis. 

Although Bolt had run nowhere close to the 19.57 that Gatlin had run earlier this season, he once again showed that he never fails to perform in championship races. 
 
“I heard that Justin Gatlin was saying that he was going to do something big in the 200m so I was like ‘Don’t talk about my 200m like you’re going to win’ so I was ready to go and I got it done,” Bolt said afterwards.



Entering these championships in Beijing, the 33-year-old Gatlin had every reason to have confidence in his 200m. The 2005 World champion hadn’t lost since 2013, dominating the 100 and 200 this season while Bolt nursed an injury in the middle parts of the summer. As both men arrived in Beijing for their two highly anticipated match-ups in the 100 and 200, Bolt had yet to break 20 seconds in a year where Gatlin had already done so on four separate occasions. 
 
His leg injury was the primary reason for this, as sub-20 is just a rep in practice for a man that’s run 19.19 for a personal best. After seeking treatment in Germany, Bolt returned healthy in London on July 24th and showed a small trace of his ability with a 9.87 win against a Gatlin-less field. But that performance still paled in comparison to the season the American had been having, as his 9.74 and 19.57 PRs run this season made the reality of double gold over Bolt in Beijing promising.
 
But Bolt would put any suggestion that Gatlin had taken his seat atop the sprinting throne to rest on Sunday night in the 100m final, beating the American narrowly 9.79 to 9.80. His big 100 win over the divisive Gatlin, who has served two doping bans in his career and whose recent success has been heavily criticized for this reason, proved to Bolt that he was hitting his stride heading into his preferred event, the 200m. 
 
“The fact that through the rounds I felt better…I told you guys at the start of the championship that the only thing I was worried about was race sharpness, and the fact I was running two rounds, two rounds got me sharper and sharper so I knew I’d be better through the rounds,” he said. 

WATCH: Usain Bolt recaps his 4th World 200m title, plus the epic segway collision
 
While Bolt kept getting faster through the rounds, including his first sub-20 performance of the season with his 19.95 in the semi-final, Gatlin was tiring, despite running an impressive 19.87 in his semi yesterday. The 33-year-old, who Bolt affectionately refers to as “old man”, could do nothing but tip his hat to Bolt finding strength in the rounds, as he himself was happy to run the time that he did having run five races prior to this evening.
 
“I think to be able to go out here and still run 19.7 after running three 100s and two 200s and still go out there and put up a good gap on the rest of the field was a good achievement for myself,” Gatlin said. 

Although Gatlin was unable to beat Bolt in both of their epic clashes in Beijing, the American was pleased to be the man responsible for the belief that the fastest man in history was vulnerable this season.
 
“I was able to rejuvenate a rivalry that has not been in the 100 or 200 for a long time, it’s definitely been a one man show. To be able to go out here and run fast times consistently through the season and build such a big rivalry, I think that I helped do that, I’m happy with that,” he said. 
 
Noting how strong Bolt is at these championships, Gatlin provided a lighter moment in the post-race press conference by playing in to Bolt’s theory that he had set up the segway takedown in an effort to stop the Jamaican.
 


“I want my money back, he didn’t complete the job,” Gatlin joked as the room burst out in laughter. “I want by yuans back, please.”

South Africa's Anaso Jobodwana won the bronze in a national record of 19.87. 
 

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