Elton Tucker, Assistant Sports Editor

Jamaica's Usain Bolt celebrates as he wins the men's 200-metre final with a world record time of 19.30 yesterday. - AP

BEIJING:

BEFORE YESTERDAY, Jamaica had never won more than two gold medals at any one Olympic Games.

In Beijing last night there were two in just 15 minutes. Usain Bolt, on the eve of his 22nd birthday, produced another electrifying performance with another world record, this time in the 200 metres.

Then a brilliant 400-metre hurdles run, in an Olympic and national record 52.64, by Melaine Walker pushed Jamaica's medal tally here to seven, including a table-topping four gold in track and field.

As the saying goes 'wi likkle but wi tallawah'. Jamaica on top of the world in athletics, leading the mighty United States, Russia and host country China at the Olympic Games.

Dumbstruck

At least four minutes after the Glen Mills-coached Bolt completed his record 19.30 run, which shaved two-hundredths of a second off the 19.32 mark held since 1996 by the great Michael Johnson, many journalists here stood in bewilderment, unable to utter a comment. They were absolutely dumbstruck by both his speed and his power.

His second record here made him the second Jamaican to hold world records simultaneously over both the 100m and 200m, following Donald Quarrie in 1975. Quarrie is here as the technical leader of the Jamaican team.

Bolt is also the first man since American Carl Lewis in 1984 to win the men's sprint double at the Olympics.

Bolt said the 200m record meant more to him than the 100m mark of 9.69.

"I have always loved the 200m, which, at the age of 15, I won at the (youth) World Championships," Bolt, who still holds the world junior record at 19.93, said.

He added that he was tired and wished he was in Jamaica.

"Right now I am very tired. I just wish I was at Sandals now taking a weekend, or at The Quad nightclub or something. But here I am trying to focus on another gold medal in the 4x100m," he said.

Now or never

Bolt said going into the race and after the semi-finals he felt it was now or never for the record.

"I told myself that I would go out there tomorrow and leave everything on the track. I felt that if I was going to get the world record it had to be here because the track is real fast," he said.

Walker had vowed to break the women's 400m world record but in the end settled for the Olympic record. The old mark, 52.77, was held by Fani Halkia of Greece who set the record while winning gold in 2004. Deon Hemmings set the national record, also in taking gold, at the Atlanta Games in 1996.

The 25-year-old Walker, who stayed in mid-pack early, said that was the race plan and she knew she had a chance at the Olympic record.

"I came out in the heats and the semi-finals and was real relaxed, so at that point in time I knew I could run 52 seconds plus. I started believing and every night I went home and ran the race in my mind. I could not eat or sleep but I made sure I had something to drink," she said.

She also begged detractors to believe in her coach, Stephen Francis, the man who has guided members of the MVP Track Club to several medals here for Jamaica.

Stubborn man

"Mr Francis is a very stubborn man. His nickname is Obama (after the American presidential candidate) because he wants to change so many things that are going on in Jamaica right now.

"I think people should believe in him because he does work hard and he wants the best for the athletes," Walker concluded.

Jamaica's team here is closing in on the 12 medals that many people predicted before the Games. They are likely to pick up two more today in the women's 200m final and at least three more in this weekend's relays.

Melaine Walker hams it up for the cameras after winning the women's 400-metre hurdles yesterday. - Charles Pitt/Freelance Photographer