The Olympic Men’s 100m Final will take place at 21:50 GMT (London time) on Sunday the 5th of August 2012, it will take place at the new Olympic stadium in Stratford, London, England. The semi-finals will take place earlier that day beginning at 19:45 GMT. The preliminaries and 1st round will take place the previous day at 10:00 and 12:30 GMT respectively
The race will see current Olympic Champion and world record holder Usain Bolt attempt to defend his title. After winning the gold medal at the Beijing games four years ago in such style and since beating the record for a third time with an incredible 9.58 seconds Bolt was looking unbeatable and in a league of his own.
Recently however the result has begun to look a little less obvious, during the Jamaican Olympic trails at the end of June Bolt was beaten in both the 100 and 200 meters by friend and rival Yohan Blake. Bolt is said to be carrying a hamstring injury and recently pulled out of a race meeting at Monaco where he had been set to run the 200 meters.
The current situation seems to be that Bolt has been giving himself time to rest and recover before a more intense training program closer to the event. Although this can’t be the ideal preperation a runner with as much raw pace as Usain Bolt is always capable of pulling out a great performance. If the world record holder is anywhere near 100% it’s hard to see how anyone could threaten him. If however he’s not on form the race could be wide open.
Bolt’s main rivals in London include:
Tyson Gay, 29 – Team USA. In the 2009 World Championships Gay finished second to Bolt despite setting a new American record and the third fastest time ever of 9.71. Normally this would be more than enough to win any 100m sprint event but this also happened to be the race where Usain Bolt set the current world record of 9.58. Gay’s 9.71 is the fastest ever 100m time to not win a race. Tyson will certainly be a contender for gold at the 2012 games.
Yohan Blake, 22 – Team Jamaica. As already mentioned Bolt’s countryman has already beaten him this year and this young sprinter is improving all the time. He is the man in form setting a new personal best of 9.75 in the Jamaican trials many see Blake as the new Usain Bolt and the only person who could beat his record anytime soon. Yohan Blake is also the reigning 100m World Champion, winning the title after Bolt was disqualified in the final for false starting. In doing so the Jamaican became the youngest ever 100 meters World Champ. High on confidence Blake could well be the number one challenger to Bolt’s Olympic crown in 2012.
