Bolt understood this dynamic. Asked this week how he hoped to see his final dash reported, he said: “Unbeatable. For me, that would be the biggest headline. Unbeatable. Unstoppable. Hear that guys? Jot it down.”

His valediction began shakily, with a first-round moan about the blocks, after he had spent the first 40 metres labouring, and looking around in a way that caught the attention of Michael Johnson, a former Olympic champion, who considered it a bad sign. "I think these are the worse blocks I’ve experienced. It was just not a smooth start,” Bolt said on Friday night. “I have to get this together. I have to get the start together because I can't keep doing this.”

There was enough in that verdict to confirm creeping anxiety. Bolt knew his best form was behind him. He was running from memory. Hanging on. A nine-year reign as champion sprinter is phenomenal. At 30, he was entitled to see shadows on the track, hear doubts in his head, feel the rumble of younger men.

Chief among those was Coleman, who inflicted Bolt’s first defeat in a World or Olympic semi-final with the fastest time of the round: 9.97secs. In that third semi, Bolt was forced to work uncommonly hard, chasing Coleman, rather than running him down. His running was laboured - strained. And as the pair crossed the line, Coleman flicked the master a look, as if to tell him his day had come.