BEIJING, China, Sporting Alert – Two days after securing arguably his toughest major championships title, Usain Bolt returns to the track on Tuesday for the heats of the men’s 200m at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing.
The Jamaican 100m and 200m world record holder, who won the 100m crown on Sunday with a gutsy performance, will now start his hunt for another sprint double.
Bolt will start in heat three of the men’s 200m, where he will take on Cuban Roberto Skyers, Yancarlos Martinez from the Dominican Republic and Julian Reus of Germany.
The 29-year-old hasn’t run a 200m since June,s when he produced his seasonal best of 20.13 seconds, but he said he is not worried about his limited outing this season in the discipline.
Bolt will try to use less energy as possible to get through the rounds, with his coach Glen Mills admitting that the sprint icon is a bit sore from the 100m after he was forced to work hard in every round.
“[He] is sore because of the lack of competition, and he had to run two hard races, because of the semi-final,” Mills confirmed.
“This is the hardest of the titles he has ever won.
“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.”
American champion and world leader Justin Gatlin, who finished behind Bolt in the 100m, will try to bounce back in the half lap when he starts from heat four.
Gatlin will have Jamaican champion Nickel Ashmeade for company. American-born Kenyan sprinter Carvin Nkanata and St. Kitts and Nevis’ Antoine Adams are also in the heat.
World silver medalist Warren Weir, a training partner of Bolt under Mills’ guidance, has been in the best of form this season, but like his countryman, he too is expected to come well prepared at these championships.
Weir, who looked sluggish at the Jamaica championships, has a season’s best of 20.26 seconds.
He races from heat six on Tuesday against USA’s Wallace Spearmon and Lykourgos-Stefanos Tsakonas of Greece.
Also going in the first round of the men’s 200m heats are Miguel Francis of Antigua & Barbuda and Zharnel Hughes Great Britain, two other training partner of Bolt – Jamaica’s Julian Forte, South Africa’s Anaso Jobodwana and Panama’s Alonso Edward.
In the men’s 800m, world record holder David Rudisha will seek to win his second world championships title, but he will have to run much faster than he has been doing, even with defending champion Mohammed Aman and the dangerous Nijel Amos already eliminated from the semis.
Bosnia-Herzegovina Amel Tuka, who is having a breakout season, is one of the main challengers to Rudisha and he has already posted a time of 1:42.51, which is significantly faster than the Kenyan’s best for 2015.
