London Anniversary Games 2016: Usain Bolt ready to race in bid to prove fitness ahead of Rio 2016 Olympics

Back on track: Usain Bolt trains at the Olympic Park yesterday ahead of this weekend’s Anniversary Games and (below) looks pleased with his progress
British Athletics/British Athletics via Getty Images

Usain Bolt declared himself fit with an hour-long training session in London yesterday as he bids to prove to Jamaican selectors tomorrow that he is ready for the Olympics.

The world’s fastest man had what was described as a “moderate” track session in the 30-degree heat ahead of the Anniversary Games at the Olympic Park, his first race since a hamstring injury forced him to pull out of the trials for Rio 2016.

Olympic selectors gave him a medical exemption from the championships meaning he was provisionally selected for the 100 and 200metres — and thereby defend his sprint titles from London 2012 — but only if he could prove his fitness.

In London tomorrow evening he will run the longer distance against a field including Britain’s Adam Gemili and is confident of putting on a show.

Bolt said: “This will be my first 200m of 2016 and it will be good to run on the curve ahead of the Olympics. The 200m is my preferred event and I think I can still run faster over the distance before the end of my career. This is a fast track and the weather has been good since I got here on Tuesday.

“I am feeling good and injury free. After this race I will travel to the Jamaican team training camp in Rio for another two to three weeks training before the big event kicks off.”

“I hope the fans come out to support tomorrow night and create a great atmosphere the way they did the last few times I competed here in London. I look forward to seeing a lot of Jamaicans in the crowd.”

On form, Justin Gatlin looks set to be his closest rival in Rio and described the Bolt injury scare as part of the “crazy stuff” surrounding the Jamaican sprinter.

Injuries have increasingly become a feature of Bolt’s early season and he faced a race against time to be fit for last year’s World Championships in Beijing in which he once more beat Gatlin on three occasions.

Photo: British Athletics/British Athletics via Getty Images
British Athletics/British Athletics via Getty Images

Michael Johnson, whose 200m record Bolt broke at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, believes the Jamaican holds a psychological advantage going to Rio even with his latest injury concerns because of events in the Bird’s Nest stadium a year ago. Johnson said: “We always knew Bolt was a great athlete. But last year he proved he was an amazing competitor as well. He wasn’t in great form at the World Championships in Beijing.

“He didn’t have much time to train or many races to warm up in those crucial few weeks leading up to the meeting and Justin Gatlin was in amazing shape and ran a great race but Bolt still won it [100m and 200m gold].

“He won’t need to be at his best in Rio because he is just that good. He only needs to be healthy. If he is, he wins. The biggest challenge, though, is staying fit.”

Quite what form he is in will become clearer over the course of 20 seconds at a track where he first defended triple Olympic gold. And his performance will go some way to dictating whether a triple defence for a second time remains on the cards.

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