Bolt will not seek world champs’ 100m wild card

Friday, 14 September 2012 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Usain Bolt will not seek a wild card entry in the 100 metres at next year’s world championships, hoping instead to secure a spot via the Jamaican trials, the six-time Olympic gold medallist said on Tuesday.

The triple world record holder said he would defer the wild card honour for the Moscow event to defending world 100m champion and training partner Yohan Blake.

Both the 2012 Diamond League 100m winner (Bolt) and the reigning world champion (Blake) are eligible for wild card entry consideration under new International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) rules.

But the global governing body will allow only one wild card per country per event.

“I think Blake has earned his right to compete in the 100 metres by winning the title at the last world championship,” Bolt, who won three gold medals at the London Olympics, told Reuters at a news conference on his return to the island nation from Europe.

“I was always going to run the 100” at Jamaica’s world championship trials next summer, said the 13-times Olympic and world medallist who accumulated the most points for 100m runners in this summer’s Diamond League series.

Bolt, the world 200m champion, said he would let the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) decide who receives the nation’s world championship wild card for the 200.

Both he and Diamond League winner Nickel Ashmeade are eligible for a free entry without having to compete in the event at their national trials.

“That will have to be determined on what the JAAA will decide,” said Bolt. “They are the ones who are eligible to pick which wild card they would like.

“The JAAA will have to say whether I will have to run (the 200) at the trials or not.”

Bolt ran both the 100 and 200 at the Jamaican Olympic trials earlier this year and was beaten in both finals by Blake. But he recovered to top Blake in the two races at the London Games and led Jamaica to a world record in the 4x100 metres relay.

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