Usain Bolt extended his stunning domination in the sprints Thursday, adding the 200-meter gold to his tally at the world championships with yet another world record. Gritting his teeth and pointing to the clock as soon as the record flashed, Bolt is now 5-for-5 in major sprint events going back to the Beijing Olympics, winning gold each time with a world record. His time of 19.19 slashed .11 seconds off the mark he set last year at the Beijing Olympics and came four days after breaking his 100m record by the same margin. “I am on my way to being a legend,” he said. No one among the near capacity crowd at the 70,000-seat Olympic Stadium disagreed. And, never shy to dream, Bolt had a thought. “If Queen Elizabeth knighthooded me and I would get the title ‘Sir Usain Bolt?'” he said. “That sounds very nice.” Alonso Edward of Panama was second, a massive .62 seconds behind Bolt. Wallace Spearmon of the US took bronze. Bolt's spirits got a boost before the start when teammate Melaine Walker added the world title to her Olympic gold in the women's 400m hurdles, another success for the Caribbean island with outsized performances at the championships. From Lane 5, Bolt gobbled up all the opposition by the end of the curve, and then let those huge arms and legs loose in a whirl of unmatched speed. Once across the line, he stuck his tongue much like basketball great Michael Jordan used to. He took off his yam-colored shoes and started celebrating on the eve of his 23rd birthday. It was the first sultry evening in Berlin, with temperatures exceeding 30 degrees C, reminiscent of that same day, exactly one year ago, in Beijing. During warm-ups, Bolt faked knocking out Spearmon, with the American happily playing along as he also was sucked up by the Bolt aura. Afterward, Spearmon could do nothing but applaud greatness. If Bolt is by far the world's greatest sprinter, the title of “greatest athlete” traditionally giving to the winner of the decathlon went to Trey Hardee of the US, taking over from injured compatriot Bryan Clay. Despite a slow closing 1,500m, Hardee held on for gold, edging Leonel Suarez of Cuba. Thursday's finals left Jamaica at the top of the gold medal standings with five compared to four for the United States. Overall, the Americans edge was 13-9. Ahead of Bolt's magic, Yusuf Saad Kamel of Bahrain and Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia started their chase for their own doubles. After winning the 10,000 on Monday, Bekele was dominant again and crossed first in his heat of the 5,000. The Ethiopian great won a long-distance double at the Beijing Olympics and adding two more golds in Berlin would establish him as perhaps the greatest distance runner Africa has had. Running on two hours sleep, Kamel followed up victory in the 1,500 late Wednesday with a win and easy qualification for the semifinals in the 800. Olympic hurdles champion Dayron Robles had a bad day, however. The world-record holder had been slowed by a hamstring injury the past few weeks and after hitting the first three hurdles in his semifinal, he cried out in agony, grabbed his leg and slowed to a stop. Robles had to be helped off the track. Instead, Ryan Brathwaite of Barbados had the performance of a lifetime to win in a photo finish at the world championships. Brathwaite hit the first hurdle but ran a clean race the rest of the way and nabbed the gold with a dip at the line to finish in 13.14 seconds. Terrence Trammell of the US took silver in 13.15, and American teammate David Payne picked up the bronze. Defending champion Blanka Vlasic of Croatia won the high jump with 2.04 after she was upset at last year's Olympics and had to settle for silver. Olympic bronze medalist Anna Chicherova of Russia took silver with 2.02, and Ariane Friedrich of Germany finished third clearing the same height.
