Usain Bolt, whose stop-start season starts again tomorrow when he runs the 100 metres at the Olympic Stadium in London in the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, has insisted he will defend his world title in Beijing next month – and added that he intends to
Bolt, whose season has been disrupted by a leg injury which caused him to pull out of this month’s Paris and Lausanne meetings in the International Association of Athletics Associations’ (IAAF) Diamond League series, told a press conference: “When the Championship comes, if anyone knows anything about me, I will show up.”
The 28-year-old world and Olympic 100 and 200m champion, who last raced, unconvincingly, over 200m in New York City on June 13, is not even in the top 60 performers over 100m this year, with a best of 10.12sec - more than half a second slower than his 2009 world record of 9.58.
Meanwhile Justin Gatlin of the United States, who returned to the track from a second doping ban in 2010, has the four fastest times of 2015 to his credit with a best of 9.74.
Bolt says he “won’t know until tomorrow” how fit he is, but added: “I never doubt myself.
“Beijing is a month away and I've been training hard and pushing myself.
“I need to run more 100s now, this is what I’ve been focused on.
“I’m not planning to lose in Beijing.
“For me, it just takes one run to get to 9.7.
"It's just to get a good execution - most of my races this year have been really poor.
"I've been doing a lot of work on the start. I just have to execute tomorrow."
As Bolt focuses on his start, the organisers of next month’s IAAF World Championships in Beijing have celebrated the 30-day countdown to an event due to take place from August 22 until 30.
During the celebrations, local organisers launched the commemorative postcards for the event and presented the official song of the Championships.
At the ceremony Dong Changzheng, executive vice president of Toyota Motor China, symbolically handed a key to Chen Jie, the executive secretary of the Organising Committee.
A total of 200 Toyota cars will be used during the Championships time for a variety of purposes, including transporting athletes and officials
They will also provide the lead timing vehicles for the road events.
Double world long jump champion Heike Drechsler and 1983 world 110m hurdles silver medallist Arto Bryggare were in attendance as special guests.
Last week IAAF President Lamine Diack voiced his concern that the advertising and promotional activities for events in the Bird’s Nest Stadium needed to be urgently stepped up.