Bupa Great Citygames
Usain Bolt blazed to the fastest run in history to ensure the inaugural Bupa GreatCity Games in Manchester proved a massive success.
Triple Olympic sprint champion Bolt and the world’s fastest distance runner, Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie – who won the Bupa Great Manchester Run earlier in the day – joined forces to put on a double whammy of top-class running.
But it was Bolt who grabbed the limelight by producing the fastest piece of running the world has ever seen.
The Jamaican superstar blazed a trail down Deansgate in the Great Manchester 150 on an innovative, specially constructed track in an IAAF ratified world best time of 14.35 seconds.
Bolt bettered the previous best mark for 150m of 14.8secs, set by Italian Pietro Mennea 26 years ago, in such stunning style that his run goes down as the fastest-ever gun-to-tape performance – faster even than his incredible 9.69secs world record in last year’s Olympic 100m final.
Remarkably, Bolt covered the 150m street course in Manchester in an average of 10.45metres per second, faster even than the 10.319meteres per second he achieved when setting the new 100m world record in Beijing and the 10.36metres per second he recorded in his 200m Olympic run.
Bolt even stumbled from the blocks before getting into his stride and blasting down the final 100m in an astounding 8.72secs.
Britain's Marlon Devonish finished a distant second in 15.07secs while Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas clocked 16.54secs to beat Britain’s Olympic 400m gold medalist Christine Ohuruogu, who ran 17.10secs, in the women’s 150m race.
Hours earlier, Gebrselassie – the greatest distance runner in history – reclaimed his Bupa Great Manchester Run 10k crown with an imperious performance, clocking 27mins 39secs over the distance. Vivian Cheruiyot won the women's race in a time of 32:01.
Bolt was highly satidfied with his performance and said: “The track was fast and easy to run on and it just all felt so cool. It was great to be so close to the fans on the streets and I hope there will be more of this to come”
An IAAF delegation, led by President Lamine Diack, visited Manchester to talk to Brendan Foster, chairman of event organisers Nova International, about the street athletics concept and they were clearly impressed.
Spokesperson Nick Davies said: “We welcome innovation and new developments in our sport and we have been very interested in observing the Bupa GreatCity Games. It certainly has the potential to be staged in other great cities of the world.”
Foster was delighted with the events of the weekend, saying: “We have just witnessed a groundbreaking development in athletics with the Bupa Great CityGames on the streets of Manchester, but let’s also applaud the 33,000 people who created such a spectacular sight in the Great Manchester Run earlier in the day. The atmosphere has been terrific.”
The events of the day were beamed to a live terrestrial television audience on BBC television, but such was the media interest that in excess of 150 members of the international press were present to report on the Great CityGames on Sunday afternoon.