Gay to Challenge Bolt for `World`s Fastest Man` Title

The 12th IAAF World Track Championship begins its 10-day run at Berlin’s Olympiastadion Saturday. The tournament will have 2,101 athletes from 202 countries competing in 47 events.

○ Men’s 100 meters

Usain Bolt of Jamaica, who set the world record in the 100-meter dash at 9.69 seconds in last year’s Beijing Olympics, said he will break his own mark. “I have no limit in my records,” he said.

Bolt posted this season’s second-fastest time July 17 at 9.79 seconds in an event held in Paris. Tyson Gay of the U.S. has the fastest time this season of 9.77 seconds set in Rome a week before Bolt did.

Gay won the 100 and 200 meters and the 400-meter relay in Osaka two years ago, but lost in last year’s Olympics. He said he is determined to regain the title of the world’s fastest sprinter in Berlin, however.

○ Can the U.S. make a turnaround?

The traditional sprint power U.S. fell from grace in last year’s Olympics by losing to Jamaica in the men’s 100 and 200 meters and the 400-meter relay. Gay was disqualified in the preliminary round and lost a baton in the relay.

The U.S. ranked first with 23 medals in track and field – seven gold, nine silver and seven bronze – but lost five sprint events – the men’s and women’s 100 and 200 meters and the men’s 400-meter relay. Whether the U.S. can reclaim its sprint glory from Jamaica remains unclear.

News that Jamaica’s track association is undergoing internal dispute could help the American cause. The association expelled then reinstated world record holder Asafa Powell and women’s 100-meter Olympic gold medalist Melanie Walker from the national team.

yjongk@donga.com