JAMAICA'S new-found sprinting supremacy was confirmed here in Beijing last night when Shelly-Ann Fraser claimed the country's first Olympic women's 100 metres gold medal and led compatriots Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart to the event's first national podium sweep.
This came a day after compatriot Usain Bolt had smashed the world record to give his country a first-ever gold in the men's 100m, a final which also contained three Jamaicans.
The success story goes further. There are three Jamaicans in the semi-finals of the women's 100m hurdles, and another two in the semi-finals of the women's 400m hurdles. Two Jamaicans have reached the final of the men's 400m hurdles today, and two are into tomorrow's women's 400m final.
The results are remarkable, but it is the performance of Bolt which will continue to hog the headlines this week, as he goes for a double gold in the 200m. As he side-stepped his way into the record books here in the Birds Nest stadium on Saturday, he rewrote the limits of human capability. A time of 9.69sec barely told the whole story. After all, it is only 0.03 off his old mark, but it was the extravagant Hollywood manner he achieved it with. Had he not slowed up in the final ten metres, he could have gone under 9.60 seconds.
The 1.96m giant reduced the seven other fastest men in the world to extras in a dance routine as he turned sideways on to the stands and pranced across the line. The question now being asked is what the 21-year-old Jamaican can do to the record in the 200m, an event that he sees as his main discipline.
Because he had his back to the clock he was unaware of the enormity of what he had achieved until he had completed his lap of honour. From the press benches, though, there were gasps of astonishment and even nervous laughter. It did not seem possible. The feat it most closely resembled was Bob Beamon's leap into the future when he bounced out to an 8.90m long jump in Mexico.
The show – because that was what it most resembled – started before the gun went. Normally a time of enormous tension as eight men face the greatest challenge of their sporting lives, Bolt introduced the mood he wished to establish by winking at the camera, then pulling faces before shooting imaginary arrows into the night sky. The crowd, mostly Chinese – there are fewer foreigners here than at any Games of the modern era – are not used to top flight athletics and tend to raucously applaud even modest qualifying attempts. In Bolt's case, they duly roared their approval.
Attention now turns to the 200m which starts today and the question being asked is whether Bolt is going to do to the 200m record what he has already inflicted on the 100m. The phenomenal time of 19.32 was set by American Michael Johnson at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and so far Bolt got his time down to 19.67 in Athens a month ago. But Bolt himself has already scotched any hopes of a repeat performance, saying: "I'm not bothered about world records, I've got plenty of time for world records in the future."
There is of course a cynical explanation for that comment. Bolt has already wasted a $250,000 pay-day on Beijing when he could have scooped the jackpot at a Golden League meeting. Why be so profligate a second time? After Beijing comes Zurich where the riches on offer are the highest in the sport.
And then there is the question of the record itself. Bolt was trying hard in Athens, but he was still around three metres off Johnson's clocking.
As well as revising records, Bolt has changed the perception of what a sprinter should be. While Johnson was a more conventional compact size, Bolt is outsize in every sense. When both he and compatriot Asafa Powell came off the track through the mixed zone, the normally powerful Powell was made to look diminutive by the younger man.
While Johnson's stride was short and choppy, his body stiff and upright, Bolt is loose-limbed and rangy, eating up the ground with alarming ease. Even when he stopped racing in the 100m, his stride actually lengthened.
Silver medallist, Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, summed up the effect of trying to pursue Bolt in full flow: "I could feel myself pulling away from the rest (of the field] and I could see him slowing down, but I'm still pumping to the line."
And that is likely to be the fate of the 200m finalists when they round the bend on Wednesday. Nothing, of course, is writ in stone, but Bolt is as big a favourite as Johnson was.
The success story goes further. There are three Jamaicans in the semi-finals of the women's 100m hurdles, and another two in the semi-finals of the women's 400m hurdles. Two Jamaicans have reached the final of the men's 400m hurdles today, and two are into tomorrow's women's 400m final.
The results are remarkable, but it is the performance of Bolt which will continue to hog the headlines this week, as he goes for a double gold in the 200m. As he side-stepped his way into the record books here in the Birds Nest stadium on Saturday, he rewrote the limits of human capability. A time of 9.69sec barely told the whole story. After all, it is only 0.03 off his old mark, but it was the extravagant Hollywood manner he achieved it with. Had he not slowed up in the final ten metres, he could have gone under 9.60 seconds.
The 1.96m giant reduced the seven other fastest men in the world to extras in a dance routine as he turned sideways on to the stands and pranced across the line. The question now being asked is what the 21-year-old Jamaican can do to the record in the 200m, an event that he sees as his main discipline.
Because he had his back to the clock he was unaware of the enormity of what he had achieved until he had completed his lap of honour. From the press benches, though, there were gasps of astonishment and even nervous laughter. It did not seem possible. The feat it most closely resembled was Bob Beamon's leap into the future when he bounced out to an 8.90m long jump in Mexico.
The show – because that was what it most resembled – started before the gun went. Normally a time of enormous tension as eight men face the greatest challenge of their sporting lives, Bolt introduced the mood he wished to establish by winking at the camera, then pulling faces before shooting imaginary arrows into the night sky. The crowd, mostly Chinese – there are fewer foreigners here than at any Games of the modern era – are not used to top flight athletics and tend to raucously applaud even modest qualifying attempts. In Bolt's case, they duly roared their approval.
Attention now turns to the 200m which starts today and the question being asked is whether Bolt is going to do to the 200m record what he has already inflicted on the 100m. The phenomenal time of 19.32 was set by American Michael Johnson at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and so far Bolt got his time down to 19.67 in Athens a month ago. But Bolt himself has already scotched any hopes of a repeat performance, saying: "I'm not bothered about world records, I've got plenty of time for world records in the future."
There is of course a cynical explanation for that comment. Bolt has already wasted a $250,000 pay-day on Beijing when he could have scooped the jackpot at a Golden League meeting. Why be so profligate a second time? After Beijing comes Zurich where the riches on offer are the highest in the sport.
And then there is the question of the record itself. Bolt was trying hard in Athens, but he was still around three metres off Johnson's clocking.
As well as revising records, Bolt has changed the perception of what a sprinter should be. While Johnson was a more conventional compact size, Bolt is outsize in every sense. When both he and compatriot Asafa Powell came off the track through the mixed zone, the normally powerful Powell was made to look diminutive by the younger man.
While Johnson's stride was short and choppy, his body stiff and upright, Bolt is loose-limbed and rangy, eating up the ground with alarming ease. Even when he stopped racing in the 100m, his stride actually lengthened.
Silver medallist, Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago, summed up the effect of trying to pursue Bolt in full flow: "I could feel myself pulling away from the rest (of the field] and I could see him slowing down, but I'm still pumping to the line."
And that is likely to be the fate of the 200m finalists when they round the bend on Wednesday. Nothing, of course, is writ in stone, but Bolt is as big a favourite as Johnson was.
