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Triple Olympic gold-medallist and self-confessed Real Madrid fan Usain Bolt has revealed that he has officially accepted the invitation to train with Los Merengues, and he is now expected to touch down in Madrid sometime this week. The Jamaican sprinter had previously admitted that he would not hesitate to accept the invite should one be sent out and, in an interview with the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) over the weekend, he confirmed that he will be heading to the Bernabéu shortly. “Yes, I have received their invitation and I will be going,” he said, before going on to gush about his favourite player, Ruud van Nistelrooy. “I’ve been following him since he was at Manchester United and I know that he is a great player and a great person.
I can’t wait to meet these boys. “I will visit Real Madrid in the next few days, after the gala in Monte Carlo.” In last night’s athletics award ceremony in Monaco, Bolt was named the IAAF Male Athlete of the Year, adding to the Gleaner’s Man of the Year accolade he picked up last month. Bolt, unfortunately, will not be able to train with his hero Van Nistelrooy as the Dutchman has been banished from the football pitch after undergoing a knee operation last week.
Olympic champions Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia were named 2008 World Athletes of the Year at the World Athletics Gala on Sunday. Bolt, 22, captured three gold medals at the Olympic Games in Beijing in August, sweeping the 100 and 200 metres and running the third leg on the victorious 4x100m relay. His run of 9.69 seconds in the 100 and 19.30 in the 200 were world records, as was the 37.10 performance by the Jamaican relay squad. "I have a motto that anything is possible, but this really is such an honour," said Bolt, who became Jamaica's first Olympic 100 metres champion. "Just to be included with every great name in the sport is wonderful. I'll try to do it year after year." Isinbayeva, 26, raised her own world record in the pole vault three times, first to 5.03 metres in Rome and 5.04 in Monaco in June, and again to 5.05 when she successfully defended her Olympic title in Beijing.It was the second consecutive Olympic Games in which Isinbayeva set a world record. "I'm very proud. It feels like the first time," said Isinbayeva, who took athlete of the year honours in 2004 and 2005. While Bolt was an overwhelming favourite for the sport's top annual prize, Isinbayeva just edged out Ethiopian distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba, who produced an unprecedented Olympic double victory in the 5000 and 10,000 metres in Beijing.Dibaba, along with Czech Olympic javelin champion Barbora Spotakova, instead shared the award for performance of the year. Spotakova broke the javelin world record with a 72.28 metres throw at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart in September. Olympic 110 metres hurdles champion Dayron Robles of Cuba, who broke the world record in his event with a 12.87 seconds run in June, won the men's performance of the year award.
Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo, who rose from obscurity to finish the season unbeaten in the 800 metres, won the revelation of the Year award. Jelimo, who captured Olympic gold and the $1 million IAAF Jackpot, only took up the event last April.Bolt and Isinbayeva each received $100,000.
USAIN BOLT plans to do some training in Ireland during the coming year, and will make a stopover in Germany for specialised driving classes before heading to Monaco for the IAAF World Athletics Gala on Sunday. The world's fastest man continues to make headlines as he continues revel in the spotlight following his amazing year in international track and field. The Independent newspaper in Ireland reported yesterday that Sports Minister Martin Cullen was trying to organise a visa for the Jamaican athlete to travel to Ireland to train at the University of Limerick. Best facility Cullen believes Bolt's decision has been triggered by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team who highly praised the training facilities at the university. "It's the All Blacks factor," he said.
"They told me that the facilities in Limerick were the best they had encountered. So, I am currently trying to get a visa for Bolt, who wants to come to the University of Limerick to train and use the facilities there." Before he heads to Ireland, Bolt will get to attend the World famous BMW 'M' driver school at Nurem-berg Ring in Germany. The 22-year-old left Kingston on Wednesday for the World Athletes Gala. He will make a brief stop in Germany, where he will get driving lessons for the unique BMW M Class vehicle which was a birthday gift from apparel sponsors Puma, days after his exploits at the Olympic Games in the Chinese capital, Beijing. Major awards Bolt is expected to walk away with at least two major awards at this Sunday's World Athletics Gala.He has been nominated in the categories for the Male World Athlete of the Year and Male Performance of the Year. This year, Bolt became the first man to win three major sprinting events at a single Olympics since Carl Lewis two dozen years ago, and the first man in history to set world records in three races at a single Olympics. In Beijing, he claimed gold with a record of 9.69 seconds in the 100 metres dash and set a record of 19.30 seconds in the 200 metres. Along with his Jamaica team-mates, he also set a record for the 4x100 metres relay at 37.10 seconds.
BEIJING (Reuters) - Jamaica’s Usain Bolt became the first man to win the Olympic sprint double with two world records when he blazed to 200 meters gold in 19.30 seconds. The 21-year-old, who eased up before setting a record of 9.69 in the 100m on Saturday, allowed himself no such indulgence in the longer race and dipped over the line to take two hundredths of a second off Michael Johnson’s 1996 mark. “It’s great, I have a great feeling, it is a dream come true,” Bolt told reporters. “I never expected this. I knew the track was a fast track but I didn’t think this was possible. I’m shocked, I’m still shocked. “I have been aspiring to the world record for so long.” Churandy Martina of the Netherland Antilles was second in 19.82 and defending champion Shawn Crawford of the United States, who ran 19.96, was bumped up to bronze after compatriot Wallace Spearmon was disqualified for stepping out of his lane. U.S. Track and Field protested against the disqualification but later accepted it. They then lodged a protest against Martina, saying he had also stepped out of his lane. For the second time in five days, though, the Bird’s Nest belonged to the super-cool Bolt. He struck a series of poses as the television cameras settled on him before he took to his blocks but again he got away cleanly and was well clear of his rivals by the halfway point. There was no showboating over the final stages on Wednesday, however, and he maintained his form and loping stride before sneaking a glance at the clock as crossed the line about seven meters clear of Martina. “It’s ridiculous,” said former 100 meters world champion Kim Collins, who finished seventh. “He’s doing it and making it look so simple. When Michael Johnson did it, it didn’t look that easy. “It’s brutal. It’s a brutal ass-whipping we took. It’s terrible here.” American Carl Lewis was the last man to win both sprints at the same Games in Los Angeles in 1984 and Bolt became just the ninth athlete to achieve the feat. The previous world record of 19.32 was set by American Johnson in the 1996 Olympics final. “Superman 2 — incredible,” Johnson told BBC TV. “He wanted that record. This is his favorite event, he went for it, he came in focused on it, knowing he would most likely win the gold.” Bolt, the 6ft 5in (1.96m) former world junior champion, owned the best time 200 time of this year (19.67) and finished second behind American Tyson Gay at the 2007 world championships.
STRONG FAVOURITE When an injury at the U.S. trials deprived Gay of the chance to run the 200m in Beijing, Bolt immediately became a strong favorite for the event. Bolt’s coach Glen Mills had always wanted him to emulate Johnson by doubling up in the 200 and 400 but he had never enjoyed the tougher training for the one-lap event. The pair reached an agreement last year that if he broke the Jamaican 200m record of 1976 Olympic champion Don Quarrie, he would be allowed to try the 100 and the reggae-loving Bolt duly delivered. The impressive 10.03 seconds he ran in his first 100 race in 2007 was just a prelude to his remarkable assault on the event in 2008 and he has now set two new world marks. A keen cricketer before he turned to athletics, Bolt first announced his talent when he became the youngest world junior champion by winning the 200m in Kingston in 2002 at the age of 15.
