Bolt to build on Rome lead time with Oslo success ahead of Olympics
Published:Usain Bolt proved any doubters wrong when running the quickest time of the season over 100m in Rome and is 1/12 to follow up with another success in the next Diamond League meeting in Oslo.
Bolt’s Olympic preparations were called into question after a massively below-par recently in Ostrava, where despite winning he posted a time of 10.04secs.
This was the first time outside of championship heats since 2009 that he failed to break 10.00secs and left the impression that he may in fact be beatable in London.
He went some way to eclipsing these thoughts when reacting with a clocking of 9.76secs in Italy in what was his first Diamond League appearance of the season.
Bolt is out again quickly in Oslo and given the quality of the field, fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell is his only serious rival.
The likes of world champion Yohan Blake and American duo Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin are missing and Powell is the only other member of the eight-man Oslo field to have run faster than 9.99secs at any point of their career.
However, Powell has only finished ahead of Bolt once, in Stockholm in 2008, and so a Bolt success looks as good as certain.
Also in Oslo action is Jessica Ennis, who hopes to break her personal best in the 100m hurdles to offer a greater chance of heptathlon gold in London.
Ennis will compete against the likes of fellow British athlete Tiffany Porter, world number one Sally Pearson and American Lolo Jones.
Her battle with Jones could be especially close and it is 1/1 that she beats Jones.
Although Jones has the far superior personal best, Ennis has run the quicker of the pair this season at 12.81secs, just 0.02secs below her lifetime best.
