Bolt: Why I could not run faster than 9.58 and break my World 100m record again

Usain Bolt has revealed injury stopped him from running faster than the 9.58 World 100m record he set in Berlin, Germany in 2009.

The time, set at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, has stood for over 15 years.

“If I hadn’t got injured in 2011, I would have broken the record again. That year, I was floating. I was running very well, and the coach was excited. It was the first time I heard him say we were going to race and break the world record,’ Bolt said on The Fix podcast.

The Jamaican could not get the chance at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, after false starting in the final.

Bolt however believes the record would be broken sooner rather than later and tips Oblique Seville as the man who will return Jamaica to the top of the world in sprint.

‘Anything is possible. Track and field is evolving fast with the new spikes, everything changes. It’ll take some work but records are records,’ said Bolt.

Since Bolt retired in 2017, Jamaica has not made it to the 100m podium at the World Athletics Championships (2019, 2022 and 2023).

At the Olympics, Jamaica has won just a silver medal since 2016 when Bolt won the 100m and 200m gold. That came last year in Paris where Kishane Thompson played second fiddle to American, Noah Lyles.

Bolt is however pinning Jamaica’s hopes of returning to the top of the event on Seville.

“Oblique can do it. If he can stay fit through the season and get it right, he can do it because I’m sure there’s something there, the ability to do it.

“Some of the time, Oblique is kind of fragile. I don’t know if it’s the work situation, if he’s doing enough work, but he can do it. He’s not missed a final yet, so he has to just to get over the hump.

“The coach believes in him, it’s up to the athlete now to put it all together. Let’s see what he does this season. He’s on the right path, he should get better and better.”