Stunning win for Blake in 100m.

Dinesh Weerawansa Reporting from South Korea

A couple of months ago, sprinter Yohan Blake would never have thought that he could have become the fastest man at the Daegu 2011 World Championships. Perhaps, he would have dreamt of the world title but may not have kept too much of hopes because the challenge was mountain high.

Jamaican Blake precisely knew that the home challenge was greater, even if he forgets all other top sprinters elsewhere in the world. Compatriots Asafa Powell, who has registered the world’s leading timing this year and the world record holder cum defending champion Usain Bolt have been shaping well and Blake had only a slim or virtually no chance of striking the men’s 100m gold.

But it all changed within a week’s period as the glorious uncertainties came to play. Powell had to withdraw from the men’s 100m just a couple of days away from the commencement of the 203-nation championships and last night before a packed stadium Bolt made the most costly blunder in his life.

The pressure and level of demand at a top championship of this magnitude is extremely high and be it a world champion and a reigning world record holder, he or she too would find it an uphill task. That was well evident in the unfortunate manner in which Bolt made a sad exit, shattering the hopes of millions of his fans. He was a mere fraction of a second ahead before the starter when coming out of the blocks, an unpardonable ‘offence’ under the new IAAF rules and regulations.

A few years back, even two different athletes were shown yellow cards, accommodating even two false starts. Then it became permitting just one false start and after that yellow card, whoever who takes the second false start being shown the red card. Now that the world governing body has taken away the yellow cards, there is no sympathy or grace for anyone making a blunder whatsoever.

That paved way for Bolt to make an unceremonial exit in one of the biggest races in his life - the title defence of his world championship crown that he won in Berlin two years ago.

This has been the most unfortunate exit I have witnessed, covering my sixth successive world championship.

Having covered the last five events in Edmonton 2001, Paris 2003, Helsinki 2005, Osaka 2007 and Berlin 2009 I could not remember such a costly mistake by a world record holder.

My mind goes back to the unfortunate exit of American Gail Devers crashing on her hurdles in the women’s 100m hurdles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. One’s loss is another person’s gain and joy and sorrow are two things that are associated with our lives.

But Jamaica did not lose the men’s 100m gold though their world champion Bolt and this year’s world’s fastest man Powell were out.

The mighty Jamaican challenge was unstoppable though their best two sprinters were not in contention.

Blake did not make Jamaica feel the absence of Powell and Bolt and ran the race of his life to take the men’s 100m gold in style. The day in which Jamaica makes a clean sweep in men’s 100m through Blake, Powell and Bolt is not that far!.

DAEGU, Monday