By Anthony Foster, Trackalerts.com writer
BEIJING, China – Glen Mills described Sunday’s victory at the XV IAAF World Championships in the Bird Nest Stadium as the “hardest” Usain Bolt ever worked for a title.
Bolt, who went into the Championships with sub-par performances, lived up to his championship billing and dismissed all comers.
He caught and beat American Justin Gatlin, the fastest man in the last two years, on the line, 9.79 to 9.80 seconds.
“This is the hardest of the titles he has ever won,” said Mills.
Before Beijing, Bolt had three outings over 100m, 9.87 twice on the same day in London (July 24) and 10.12 in Brazil (April 19).
“It was very challenging because of the challenges he had to face during preparation for the Championships and hats off to him for a real gutsy and champion performance,” said Mills.
However, despite the challenges faced during preparation, Mills said: “Getting him into the frame of mind wasn’t too difficult, but like every human being, he felt a lot of the pressure that was there and to an extent he may have overreacted and thing, but when all is said and done, he was victorious.”
After beating Gatlin, which many experts described as “saving the day” for track and field, Mills said, “that’s not the best of Usain, but I am completely satisfied with the result.”
Bolt now turns his attention to his pet event, the men’s 200m first round on Tuesday.
Mills said Bolt is a bit ‘sore because of the lack of competition, and he had to run two hard races, because of the semi-final” but added, “we will see what happens tomorrow.”
