COULD WE BE seeing the beginning of the end of the Usain Bolt era in athletics?
The six-time Olympic champion has struggled with form and fitness all season and is now no longer listed to run the 100m at the Jamaican national trials this evening.
Bolt, who is the 100m and 200m world record holder, has yet to run faster than 10.12 for the shorter event this year but was due to race at the trials in a bid to find race sharpness after his positively pedestrian 20.29 on the way to winning the 200m at the New York Diamond League meeting recently.
That was his slowest time for the 200m in a final in nine years.
And today his name was missing from the list of athletes — which does include the likes of Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell — due to compete in the 100m released by the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association.
As the defending champion in both the 100m and 200m, Bolt does not need to qualify for Beijing in August. However, his non-appearance at the national trials is a concern, especially for those eager to see him race against Powell, Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay in China.
The trio, who have all returned from doping bans recently, have combined for four of the fastest 100m times in the world this year with Gatlin running a 9.74 and 9.75 in the space of just two weeks.
Bolt’s next scheduled race is on 4 July in Paris.
