by LetsRun.com

June 13, 2013

Usain Bolt, who had looked sluggish in his first two 100 meter races of the year including a loss in his last race to Justin Gatlin in Rome, returned to his winning ways tonight in Oslo as he won the 200 at the 2013 ExxonMobil Bislett Games in a world leading time of 19.79 seconds (+1.7 m/s wind).

Bolt is the first person in 2013 to break 20.00 with a wind-legal wind as the world leading time was 20.00 coming into the night.

Given the field assembled against Bolt, the win was expected. The one person who might have been able to beat Bolt if Bolt had slipped up, 2012 Olympic 5th placer Churandy Martina (19.85 pb), was disqualified for a false-start.

Article continues below player

Instead runner-up honors went to Norway’s Jaysuma Saidy Ndure. Ndure was surprisingly right with Bolt when they finished the turn but Bolt crushed him one they started the straight sprinting.

Bolt didn’t let up at all here. He ran hard all the way through the line and even leaned. It will be interesting to see post-race if Bolt is pleased with the time or not. We’ll try to update this with some post-race comments from Bolt.

Quick Thought: Not a bad 200 opener for Bolt. Certainly not amazing by his standards as Bolt has opened up as fast as 19.56 (2010), but it’s right in line with where he normally is for an opener.

For comparison’s sake, Bolt opened up at 200 two years ago also in Oslo in 19.86 (.7 m/s wind). If you use the amazing wind converter that we like to use, they both are basically the equivalent with no wind. This year’s time converts to 19.91 with no wind and 2011’s converts to 19.92 with no wind.

Last year, Bolt didn’t run the 200 until the Jamaican champs in July where he was beaten in 19.83 (running into a .5 m/s wind).