JOIN US Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man, plans to smuggle the skipping rope he uses to train into the Olympic stadium after an official took it off him on his way in to Sunday’s 100 metres final.
Games chief Sebastian Coe promptly ordered an investigation. But the Jamaican sprinter said on Tuesday that he had also been irritated when an official told him to ‘stay in a straight line’ before his 100M triumph, the showpiece event of the Games, watched on television by hundreds of millions worldwide. “Oh my God, why are there so many rules?! You can’t do nothing,” he told reporters after opening the defence of his 200M title with an easy heat win.
“It’s weird, some of the rules. I was coming in a while ago and I had my skipping rope in my bag and they said I can’t bring it in. I was like, ‘Why?’. ‘It’s just the rules’,” he said. “I am going to do it tomorrow... I am going to stick it under my bag, bottom of my bag or something.”
Coe, the Games chief, said skipping ropes were ‘not expressly banned’. “I will look at this,” he said. “I presume the skipping rope was a warm-up aid so I will look at that.”
Walcott fastest in EPL
Even as Usain Bolt is busy burning up the Olympic track, a survey showed that Theo Walcott is the fastest footballer in the English Premier League (EPL).
While Bolt ran at an incredible 27.5 miles an hour setting his 100M world record (9.58 seconds) at the 2009 Berlin World Championship, Walcott is rated the quickest on the football turf, though at 22.72 mph he is nowhere near the Jamaican. Yet, the Arsenal striker has rattled many a defender with his blistering runs down the right flank.
Hot on Walcott’s heels is his former team-mate Sol Campbell, who in his heydays was recorded at a top speed of 22.50 mph. The bulky defender was notorious for his bursts upfront.