In reference to the final, I find it interesting that Bolt’s 10.1 in the heats looked very routine (not to take away from the fact that he was working to make up for his start) and demonstrated such forceful grimacing, shoulder elevation, and over all tightness to run the 9.97 in the final.
A few things come to mind:
- the 9.97 is 96% and change of 9.58. Granted he is not in 9.58 shape; however, that’s nearly 4 tenths to the hundredth- slower
- he’s always been tremendous in the final of a multi-heat competition. thus it’s interesting to note how strenuous the relatively poor performance of 9.97 was in comparison to the Sunday jog 10.1 in the heats (barely a tenth difference for someone who, when in top form, has to run sub 10 flat just for it to qualify as +95% speed work)
Before I get too academic, I, for one, am more interested in how poor his technical performance of the race was in addition to the discrepancy in form/relaxation between the heats and the final when the actual time difference between the two was almost negligible relative to his top form potential.
He’s clearly no where near 9.58 shape, however, to struggle to run 4 tenths slower less than a year after the 9.58 (where he cruised a 9.89 in the heats) in addition to the 9.84 and 9.82 he’s already ran this year (post injury and within the last couple of months)- is curious to say the least.