Usain Bolt ... three gold medals, three world records in three events. - AP

WITH A haul of three Olympic gold medals, in addition to three world records, there's not much else that could have been achieved at the 29th Olympiad in Beijing by Usain 'Lightning' Bolt.

For his delivery of such awe-inspiring performances, which at times left Jamaica and the world staring on in disbelief, the 22-year-old who celebrated his birthday hours after breaking the 200m world record, has been voted The Gleaner Performer of the Week.

When Bolt erased the 200m world record of 19.32 set by America's 'Superman' Michael Johnson, having earlier erased his own 100m world record with a new mark of 9.69, Bolt became the first man in 24 years to capture the Olympic sprint double and first to do it with world records in each event.

Bolt's 19.30 dash to glory in the 100m sprint was also the first time that a Jamaican had captured the 100m sprint title. Donald Quarrie came close at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal but was beaten into second place by Trinidad and Tobago's Hasely Crawford.

Adding to the historic outing, Bolt then teamed up with Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and the world's second-fastest man, Asafa Powell, to decimate the 4x100m relay record. The four men erased the 15-year-old mark of 37.40 held by a US team which featured Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell. Bolt ran the third leg of the event before handing over to Powell, who sprinted to victory.

The 4x100 win was the first time any Caribbean team had captured the men's event at the Olympics.

In the Olympic Games filled by so many wonderful performances, including Shelly-Ann Fraser's sprint to victory in the 100m and Veronica Campbell-Brown's title defence of the 200m, Bolt provided the spark that ignited the nation's best ever performances: six gold medals, three silver and a bronze medal so far on the world's biggest stage.