Staff Writer – Archi
In Sports news. Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt has set his sights on breaking his own 200-metre world record next year.
Bolt, who was last week named IAAF male World Athlete of the Year for a fifth time, captured yet another triple gold haul at the world championships in Moscow this summer, defending his 100 and 200m titles before anchoring the Jamaican team to victory in the 4×100 relay.
But records were off the agenda for Bolt this year as the 27-year-old plans his strategy for 2014.
“Definitely for this season me and my coach have decided to focus on running faster because there is no championship, so we are definitely targeting the 200 metres,” Bolt said during a visit to Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium.
“We’ll see what happens. Hopefully I can stay injury-free and everything will go well this season and I can break the world record.”
Bolt set the current 200 world mark of 19.19s and the 100 record of 9.58 at the world championships in Berlin in 2009.
“It’s all about not getting injured this season,” said Bolt. “That’s my focus, and then we’re going to try to push myself and hopefully get the world record and it will all work out.
“We’re going to run a lot more 200 this season and we’ll see if we can get it done.”
Photo courtesy www.afroautos.com
Six-time Olympic gold-medal winner Bolt earlier this year indicated that the 2016 Rio Games would be the swansong to his glittering career at the age of 30, before hinting in September that he could carry on for another year.
But Bolt revealed on Friday that his coach believes he is capable of continuing until the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, even if the athlete himself does not share his enthusiasm.
“At the beginning of the season I had a meeting with my coach, and we were talking about how long I can go on in track and field,” said Bolt.
“I was saying 2017 would be the max and he said I probably could go to the Tokyo Olympics if I wanted to. I was like ‘it’s kind of far.’
“So it’s something on his mind and not on my mind. I want to retire in 2017, but even if I don’t run here I’ll definitely be here because I enjoy watching track and field. We’ll see what happens, but I want to retire in 2017.”
