By Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
Bolt... set records in U17 200 and 400m.
WESTERN BUREAU:
CARIFTA Games quadruple gold medal winner Usain Bolt said he was disappointed that he did not win the award for the most outstanding male athlete at the event that ended in the Bahamas on Monday.
Trinidad and Tobago's Darrell Brown who set a new record in the Under 20 Boys 100m and anchored the gold medal winning 4x100m team was given the award.
After setting new meet records for the Boys Under 17 400m and 200m events and running outstanding legs on the winning 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams, Bolt said he was fully expecting to hear his name called at the closing ceremonies.
"I felt very bad, I was getting ready to go up for the award. But that is life and I know next time I will try even harder," the William Knibb Memorial High School student told The Gleaner, soon after arriving at the Sangster International Airport on Tuesday.
Bolt broke the 10-year-old 400m record of 47.75 seconds that was held by compatriot Davian Clarke with a 47.33 seconds clocking and also lowered the 200m record to 20.12 seconds. Trinidad's Brown had set the 200m record of 20.20 seconds two years ago.
Despite not taking the award, Bolt said he was "very pleased with my performance as I achieved what I set out to do" and promised he could run even faster come July at the World Juniors to be held in Kingston.
Of the two records he set, he said he was more surprised with the 400m as he prefers to run the shorter distance. The soft spoken but confident Bolt said he knew he would run fast in the 200m and was not at all surprised by the time he ran.
Bolt who was representing Jamaica for the third time after talking part in the CARIFTA Games last year and the World Youth games in Hungary said he was not surprised that he had won both events by such large margins. He said the coaching staff had checked out the times for the other athletes in the meet in his events and he was confident then that he would win.
The best is yet to come, however, as he said he thinks he can lower both times later this year. With some competition he said he can run "about a 46 seconds in the 400m and 20.8 seconds in the 200m."
