The confirmation that world record holder Usain Bolt will be running in the Olympic 100 meters has elevated the blue riband event of the athletics program to even more mouth-watering levels. Bolt, a world championship silver medalist over 200m, blasted his way into the 100m reckoning with his world record 9.72 run in May but only confirmed on Sunday he would run both races in Beijing. His Jamaican compatriot Asafa Powell, whose 9.74 record Bolt surpassed, and American world champion Tyson Gay, who scorched to the fastest time ever recorded over the distance with a wind-assisted 9.68 this year as well as a legal 9.77, complete an awesome trio. With the big three all owning sub-9.8 second times and with two further Americans, Darvis Patton and Walter Dix, owning personal bests of 9.89 and 9.93 respectively, also likely to be in the mix, fireworks certainly look in store for the Aug. 16 final. When Justin Gatlin won in 2004 the first five runners all went under 10 seconds, the first time it had happened in an Olympic final, and such is the quality of the field this time that it would not be a huge surprise if all eight finalists dipped under that barrier. As is usually the case, there have been few head-to-heads between the main contenders in the build-up races and with Gay not having run since July 5 when he suffered his hamstring injury, there remains a fascinating sense of the unknown hovering around the event. Powell arrives as the form man having put together an impressive series of three consecutive wins in IAAF meets. He edged Bolt by one hundredth of a second in Stockholm with 9.88 then clocked 9.94 in London before signing off in Monte Carlo with 9.82. Bolt was always focused on the 200m and looked pretty sharp over that distance when he set a UK all-comers record of 19.76 despite easing up in the London Grand Prix last month. But his startling arrival on the 100m scene this year meant it was no real surprise when his coach Glen Mills announced he would double-up. At 6ft 5ins the 21-year-old has an unlikely build for a sprinter and is never going to be flying out of the blocks but once he unwinds his long legs anyone in front of him better have a good lead. Gay's chances depend on how well he has recovered from the injury sustained in the US trials that ended his chances of making the 200m team for Beijing. He pulled out of the July 25 London Grand Prix, saying he did not want to risk the hamstring so close the Games, but stuck with his plan to train in Europe. His team has remained tight-lipped but when the 2007 double world champion arrives at the US training camp in Dalian on Tuesday he will be assailed by the world's media desperate to hear him declare himself fit. If everything goes to plan then it could be an explosive final. “I honestly think Bolt can run 9.6 seconds, Asafa can run 9.6 and a healthy Tyson can run 9.6,” American 200m hopeful Wallace Spearmon said on Monday. “Four athletes ran faster than 9.90 seconds in 2004 but that might be like sixth-place here.” Bolt's 100m record ratified by IAAF Usain Bolt's 100m record was ratified Monday by the International Association of Athletics Federations. The Jamaican sprinter ran the 100 in 9.72 seconds on May 31 in New York, breaking Asafa Powell's previous mark of 9.74 – Reuters __
