On May 31 in 2008 a relatively unknown Jamaican sprinter captured his kickoff world tape at 100m, writes Charlie Gordon

On a murky evening in New York Urban center, 21-year-old Usain Bolt towers over his competition fifty-fifty when stooped in his blocks awaiting starter's orders.

Alongside him is Tyson Gay, reigning world champion over 100m and 200m, simply something incredible was so clearly in the making when the rangy, 6ft 5in Bolt began to suspension clear at the 20m marking of the 2008 Reebok Yard Prix.

His long legs, although a hindrance out of the blocks, deport him to a top speed of nigh 28mph which puts him leagues higher up the rest. The world did not quite know it nevertheless, but nobody catches up to Usain Commodities.

As he ruthlessly extends his lead, earth-form rival Gay is left staring at a clean pair of heels and a trackside timer which stopped at ix.71 seconds. The time would afterwards be corrected to ix.72 but the outcome did non modify, Bolt had just become the fastest human in history.

Weeks later, Bolt would capture the hearts and minds of virtually the entire globe at the Beijing Olympics where he won his first make clean sweep of golden medals. Indeed, that was where the main role of Bolt's movie began, merely the unorthodox lead-upward, capped off by that scintillating performance in New York, is but as of import.

Becoming Lightning Bolt

Not many 100m sprinters are two metres tall. With a race that frequently begins and ends in under 10 seconds, explosivity and acceleration are paramount, with elevation speed only coming into play more than halfway downward the rails.

As such, Bolt was a built-in and bred 200m runner, neat the world junior record in 2004 with a stunning sub-twenty 2d time.

The teenage Jamaican took his talents to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, nursing a slight hamstring injury while failing to proceed up with a fairly average field in his 200m heat.

That disappointment aside, such a stunning functioning at the Earth Inferior Championships was enough to convince many that Bolt was destined for success, but few could have predicted the sheer domination he would eventually wield over the shorter altitude.

As uncovered by Michael Johnson's BBC documentary, The Fastest Man Who Has Ever Lived, Commodities is, past his own admission, a lazy trainer.

The young Jamaican constantly lobbied his jitney Glen Mills to permit him run the 100m, which came with a lighter training schedule, until the pair settled on a wager; if Bolt bankrupt the national 200m record, he would finally get his shot.

At the 2007 Jamaican Championships, Bolt did merely that, eclipsing a record set by sprinting legend Don Quarrie in 1971. According to the Jamaica Gleaner, his response was but: "When is the 100m?"

Iii weeks later, the man who would proceed to exist labelled 'Lightning Bolt' ran his starting time e'er competitive 100m in Crete, posting a promising merely unremarkable time of 10.03 seconds.

Pretty soon after, things caught fire. In only his third race he came within 0.02 seconds of Asafa Powell'southward world tape, posting a 9.76 at the Jamaica International Invitation in Kingston, a fourth dimension that would have put fresh air between himself and any Olympic final in history.

Hard-nosed critics were sceptical of that fourth dimension'southward legitimacy, given Bolt romped home a total 0.32 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger on the night. How could anyone arraign them? On what planet could this genetic anomaly come then close to the fastest fourth dimension in history in simply his third competitive 100m race?

Weeks afterward, Bolt had his arms spread broad equally he powered round the corner in New York, leaving a world-class field obliterated in his wake.

The new earth tape-holder had made history in just his quaternary competitive 100m at a meeting few outside the athletics globe would have watched, but it ensured his name was on everybody'due south lips heading towards the big stage in Beijing.

Possibly at that place has never been an athlete more suited to the global limelight. When the camera pointed his way, he was in his element. When he danced on the first-line or crouched into his signature lightning commodities pose, the oversupply erupted. When he put his finger to his lips and zoned in mere seconds earlier the starter's gun, the crowd brutal silent. Beijing was the Bolt testify, all other athletes were the supporting bandage.

After jogging through his heat and semi-terminal in the aforementioned way anyone else might do when flashed across the route by a waiting car, the Jamaican was fix to put on a prove for the Olympic concluding.

Almost a carbon copy of his record in New York one calendar month prior, Commodities powered abroad from the pack, bursting into celebration a full 20m before the finish line, beating his chest once and taking care not to trip over his untied shoelace as he broke his own world record.

Pic: Mark Shearman

In New York he appear himself to the sporting world, in Beijing he announced himself to the globe. Six days afterwards he would round off Beijing with three gold medals and iii world records, calculation the 200m and 4x100m relay to his growing collection.

Of class, what Bolt went on to accomplish in London, Rio de Janeiro and especially Berlin, where his world records of 9.58 and 19.19 still stand today, will forever exist etched in history. Indeed, and then will his first world tape in New York, although you might have to look further down the page.

On May 31, we remember the 13th anniversary of Bolt's beginning 100m masterclass which, if his double-decker got his wish, near didn't happen at all.