ATHLETICS | USAIN BOLT
Bolt planning to make lightning strike until Tokyo 2020
The heavily decorated multiple winner of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in both the Olympics and World Championships had planned to hang up the running shoes in 2017.
Usain Bolt admitted on the Profile program at home in Jamaica that he is rethinking his retirement and aiming for a final swansong in Tokyo 2020, and not bowing out in 2017 after the World Championships in London. That was planned as the great goodbye, but it looks like his coach Glenn Miller has convinced the world athletics superstar to continue running until the Olympics that will be held in the Japanese capital in 2020.
Bolt will be 34 coming into those Olympic games but his coach Glenn Miller believes that his disciple is an exception to the natural laws of age and velocity and will still be able to compete at the highest level.
“I’m not sure what to do, but I believe in my coach”, said the Jamaican sprinter, who will make a definitive decision over the next couple of years. If things go well in Río and the following World Championships, he might be encouraged to continue until Japan. His sponsor Puma is also said to be keen on his continuation.
What is clear for Bolt is that “the important thing is to say goodbye at the top”, and avoid an extension of a career living on past glories, playing a tribute act to himself.
