Usain Bolt holds the world records in the 100m and the 200m, but a third all-time fastest mark belonging to the Jamaican sprint legend was almost wiped out due to a post-race faux pas.
The 38-year-old from Sherwood Content, Jamaica, retired back in 2017, yet his best runs in his two primary events still stand as world records.
Flamboyant United States Olympic gold medalist Noah Lyles has been open about his ambition to eclipse Bolt's record times, but the towering Caribbean king of sprinting's personal bests of 9.58 seconds in the 100m and 19.19 in the 200m have yet to be threatened.
Bolt set those two records while claiming gold medals at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Three years later, at the 2012 Olympics in London, he was part of a 4x100 relay team that smashed the world record for that event as they blew away the competition to earn another gold.
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But Bolt – who ran the final leg of the race – almost caused his team to be disqualified because of what did with the baton after he crossed the finish line.
After having already added gold medals in the 100m and 200m to the double individual golds he had won four years earlier in Beijing, Bolt wanted to get the Jamaican team's baton signed by his teammates as a memento of their record-setting run.
"I got the baton back but at the start he was saying I couldn't keep it because it's the rule," Bolt said in a press conference after the event, detailing an interaction with a race official.
"It was kind of weird because he actually told me that if I didn't give it back I would be disqualified so I just gave it back to him."
"I took a picture with the guys, and I am going to frame the picture and put the baton below it – just something to remind me of London."
Bolt's teammate Yohan Blake told reporters: "He took the baton because he wanted all of us to sign it because of what we have done tonight and what Britain has seen tonight,"
"It is guys going to the next level of track and field in 4x100."
Topics: Usain Bolt, Athletics
Ryan Baldi