Usain Bolt's unparalleled career ended in extraordinary drama as he pulled up with injury on the anchor leg of his last race, the 4x100 metres relay final at the world athletics championships.
The 30-year-old had taken the baton for Jamaica a few metres adrift of the two leaders when, straining hard to catch them, he stopped abruptly with cramp in his left hamstring, began hobbling and tumbled to a halt after a forward roll.
As Britain went on to win gold, Bolt lay on his back in his lane, his head in hands, being tended to by medics as one waited with a wheelchair to help push him off the track.
Yet the sport's greatest entertainer was determined that one of the finest careers in sport was not going to end with him in a wheelchair.
So the fastest man of all-time, surrounded by his three worried teammates, Omar McLeod, Julian Forte and Yohan Blake, rose gingerly to his feet and limped the last 30 metres to the line.
The official result recorded that the Jamaicans did not finish but Bolt had been absolutely determined to ensure he completed the last race after a matchless career in which he won 19 major championship gold medals.
Typically, Bolt's only thoughts were with the teammates he felt he had let down.
"He kept apologising to us but we told him there was no need to apologise," Forte said.
"Injuries are part of the sport."
McLeod added: "It just happened - Usain Bolt's name will always live on."
Kevin Jones, the Jamaican team doctor, said Bolt had suffered cramp in his left hamstring.
Blake was angry at having to wait for two medal ceremonies to take place before the race.
"We keep warming up and waiting, then warming up and waiting. I think it got the better of us," Blake said.
"It hurts to see a true legend, a true champion go out there and struggle like that."
Jamaican team manager Ian Forbes praised Bolt for "going out there and giving his all" and added that the squad were "very saddened".
"The diagnostic work will be done shortly to determine how serious it is. He was able to walk to the team bus so hopefully that signals it's not as serious as it possibly could be," Forbes said.
With the 56,000-strong crowd going wild about the British victory, there was still time for them to hail the sport's favourite performer, who waved to them a mite forlornly while hobbling away from the track.
Share
