Usain Bolt Confirmed to Star at London Anniversary Games

The fastest man on the planet is coming back to London. Al Dannity reports on this morning’s announcement that Usain Bolt will race at London’s Anniversary Games.

Is it 2014 already? I ask because it’s usually at the mid-point in Olympiads that the top athletes in the world show less rigidity in their schedules. While the Commonwealth Games are dear to some, likewise the European Championships, it’s usually that mid-cycle year that the world’s headline grabbers strut their stuff more freely. This is 2013, there’s a World Championship this year, I’m calling Usain Bolt running in London a big-time bonus for track fans.

No doubt he’ll also be getting a big-time pay-check but he’s totally worth it. Bolt would be a marvel to behold were he just the most gifted sprinter ever to grace the planet. The Jamaican is of course much more than that. This is a man whose confidence borders on arrogance but not to a point where it could put anyone off. Bolt has too much charisma for that. Remember last August as he went to the blocks for the 200m final at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Bolt started chatting to one of the volunteers in the next lane and fist bumped the volunteer manning his blocks. That’s style, that’s confidence, that’s something only a man who’d give the Flash a run for his money can do.

The Anniversary Games won’t be like a standard Grand Prix meet. Taking place over three days, instead of the usual single evening, with the third day being solely for Paralympic events this event will put Athletics in a global spotlight a month before the World Championships. Bolt heads a cast of 12 Olympic champions signed up for the event, including Jessica Ennis whose star rocketed in London last year.

Signing Bolt is a massive coup for the organisers as this will be the first time, save for last year’s Olympics, since 2009 that Bolt has raced in Britain. Tax rules had put him off racing in recent editions of the London Grand Prix but a change in British law has removed this obstacle. Bolt will run the 100m on the Friday of the event and then race the 4x100m on the Saturday. “I’m looking forward to coming back to the UK, especially with it being a year since winning three gold medals in the Olympic Stadium,” said Bolt. “The crowd were amazing at the Games and I hope they will be out again in their numbers at the end of July.”