Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt has the potential to break his own world records at the upcoming London Olympics, but it would be quite a hard victory, former Olympic sprint champion Pietro Mennea said.
Mennea felt that Bolt could repeat his success of four years ago at Beijing Olympics, where he won gold medals in 100m, 200m and 4X100m races, reports Xinhua .
Bolt, who has three Olympic gold medals to his name, “is slightly ahead of all others,” said the 1980 Olympic 100m gold medallist and former world 200m record-holder.
However, the Italian said, it will be certainly more difficult now that the runner has a new rival, also a Jamaican national, Yohan Blake. “Therefore, he cannot afford to make any mistakes,” he said.
To make Bolt such a strong sprinter is his extraordinary figure, according to the Italian champion. “Just consider that I am 1.80 meters tall, while Bolt stands 1.96. There is a big difference, of course. It is evident he is a predestined for great performances,” Mennea stressed.
Speaking of China’s 110m hurdler Liu Xiang, Mennea said the Olympic medallist and world champion could pull off the same feat as in 2004 Athens Olympics.
Liu has clearly showed his talent in the past games and he could win the gold medal again, he said.
In his view, the main weak point in the Italian sports is that “sporting organisations are filled with people of little value”, and, therefore, are unable to cultivate young talent.
