Bolt Leads Jamaican Team for Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Usain Bolt will defend his titles in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The sprinting superstar, one of 59 athletes on Jamaica’s team, was named in all three events by the Jamaican Olympic Association and he will be joined by 2011 world champion Yohan Blake.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will bid for a third successive Olympic 100m title, while world 200m silver medallist Elaine Thompson has been selected for both the 100m and 200m.

Other leading names on the team include world indoor 60m hurdles champion Omar McLeod, world shot put bronze medallist O’Dayne Richards and two-time Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown.

The athletics programme at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games runs from 12-21 August.

Bolt Leads Jamaican Team for Rio 2016 Olympic Games

Bolt Tips Blake To Take Over Athletics

The world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, has designated his training partner and 2011 World 100m champion, Yohan Blake, as his heir apparent and said he expects his fellow Jamaican to pick up the mantle of the “face of global athletics” when he retires from the sport.

Jamaica’s Yohan Blake runs in the men’s 4x100m relay round 1 heat at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium August 10, 2012.

Bolt, the reigning two-time Olympic 100m and 200m champion, has been the superstar of the sport for the last eight years.

The athlete, who turns 30 in August, has said he plans to retire after next year’s International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in Athletics in London.

 

Speaking to The Gleaner at yesterday’s Bring the Beat launch at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in Kingston, Bolt said Blake, who is also coached by Glen Mills at the University of the West Indies-based Racers Track Club, is the man for job.

“I said to Blake that he is the one that I have to hand it over to after I retire. To me, he is going to come back in form very great after the season to come because it’s going to take time after coming back from a big injury to get back into your running; so I think when I retire that Blake will definitely take over,” the athlete said.

Bolt Tips Blake To Take Over Athletics