Usain Bolt: ‘I pretty much gave up’ in slowest 200m final since 2006

By Nick ZaccardiJun 13, 2015, 5:05 PM EDT

NEW YORK — Usain Bolt couldn’t explain what went wrong after winning a 200m race in a slow 20.29 seconds at the Adidas Grand Prix on Saturday, increasing doubt about his form a little more than two months before a possible showdown with Justin Gatlin at the World Championships.

It marked Bolt’s slowest 200m time, not including prelim races, since 2006.

“I’m not overly happy with it,” Bolt told Lewis Johnson shortly after his first race in the U.S. in five years, at the site of his first world record seven years ago. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on.”

Bolt said how he ran the curve portion of the 200m was the worst of his career, which has included six Olympic gold medals and world records in the 100m and 200m.

Bolt’s time Saturday was far short of Justin Gatlin‘s world-leading 19.68 seconds from May. Bolt won by .03 over Zharnel Hughes among a field that did not include Gatlin and into a 2.8 meters/second headwind. Watch the race video here.

“I got out of the blocks, and I just didn’t go anywhere,” Bolt said. “After the turn, I pretty much gave up.”

Bolt’s race Saturday was his third 200m since 2013 after he missed much of 2014 following foot surgery that March. Bolt previously ran 20.13 and 20.20 this year. His world record is 19.19 from 2009.

“This season is not going so smoothly,” Bolt said. “I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. I need to get on top of things, try to work my way back. … At this pace, my legacy is going to be in trouble.”

Bolt will race the 100m and possibly the 200m at the Jamaican Championships in two weeks, his coach said after the race. Bolt’s spot on the Worlds team is not dependent on his results at the Jamaican Championships.

“He didn’t approach the turn with his usual aggression that he’s capable of,” longtime coach Glen Mills said several feet away from Bolt as the sprinter received a post-race massage. “His training is coming along gradually. … He’s going to be running a lot more races in order to get him into competitive peak shape. He hasn’t been doing much in terms of competitive running. Over the next two months, you’ll see him doing quite a lot more races with a more aggressive approach in order to get the kind of competitive level we would like.”

Mills said Bolt is in better condition now than he was at this point in 2013, when he was coming off a slight hamstring strain and went on to sweep the 100m and 200m at Worlds.

Americans are preparing for the U.S. Championships in Eugene, Ore., in two weeks, where they will be looking to finish in the top three of their events to make the World Championships team. Reigning World champions and Diamond League season champions have byes into Worlds.

Also Saturday, Tyson Gay won the 100m in 10.12 seconds into a 1.7 m/s headwind (video). Gay ran 9.88 on May 30 and is the second fastest American this year behind Gatlin, who has a bye into Worlds. (Full Adidas Grand Prix results here)

Tori Bowie prevailed in the 200m in 22.23 into a 2.8m/s headwind (video), the fastest time ever into that much of a wind, according to the IAAF’s Jon Mulkeen. Only Olympic champion Allyson Felix, who has a bye into Worlds, has been faster among Americans this year. Bowie, primarily a long jumper until spring 2014, was the fastest woman in the world in the 100m last year.

Olympic champion Jenn Suhr finished third in the pole vault, failing to clear 4.64m. Brazil’s Fabiana Murer cleared 4.80m for the win, just .01 off Suhr’s world-leading clearance for 2015.

Former New York Giants running back David Wilson triple jumped 14.66m in his first meet in four years. He fell well shy of the 16.30m needed to automatically qualify for the U.S. Championships.

Cuban Pablo Pedro Pichardo, the best jumper this year, won with 17.57m over Olympic silver medalist Will Claye.

Kenyan Olympic champion David Rudisha, beset by injury much of the last two years, won the 800m in 1:43.58 (video), just .02 off the fastest time in the world this year.

U.S. champion English Gardner won the 100m in 11.00 (video), two weeks after she clocked a personal-best 10.84 at the Prefontaine Classic. Gardner is ranked second among Americans this year, behind Tori Bowie, who ran 10.82 at the Prefontaine Classic.

Sharika Nelvis won the 100m hurdles in 12.65 seconds (video). Summer and Winter Olympian Lolo Jones was fourth in 12.95 as she continues to come back from a hamstring injury.

The fastest U.S. women this year are Jasmin Stowers (12.35), Kendra Harrison (12.50) and Nelvis (12.52). World champion Brianna Rollins has a bye into Worlds. The 2008 Olympic champion Dawn Harper-Nelson is the fourth fastest American this year.

World champion David Oliver won the 110m hurdles in 13.19 into a headwind, topping 2011 World champion Jason Richardson by .07. The fastest American this year (and second fastest in the world) is Olympic champion Aries Merritt (13.12).

Mary Cain, who in 2013 became the youngest American to make a World Championships team at age 17, finished fourth in a 1000m (video). It was her first race since announcing she moved from her training base in Oregon back to her native New York.

“It was just a decision, honestly, because of my long school year,” said Cain, who finished her freshman year at the University of Portland while running professionally. Cain said Alberto Salazar is still her coach. Salazar is under scrutiny after a BBC and ProPublica report that quoted former team members saying Salazar violated medical and anti-doping rules with some of his athletes.

Ajee’ Wilson took the 800m in 1:58.83 (video). Wilson, 21, was the fastest in the world last year and is No. 2 this year.

The 2004 Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner finished seventh in the 400m in 45.89 (video), his fastest time since 2013. He’ll need to be about one second faster at the U.S. Championships to make the World Championships team individually.

Francena McCorory won the 400m in 49.86, the fastest time in the world this year. McCorory’s top rivals, countrywomen Sanya Richards-Ross and Allyson Felix, were not in the field Saturday.

Puerto Rican Javier Culson took the 400m hurdles in 48.48, his fastest time this year but .39 slower than the world’s fastest man in 2015, American Bershawn Jackson. Culson was the fastest man in 2014. Jackson pulled out of the Adidas Grand Prix to be with his ill mother.

Flashback Video: Usain Bolt at the Athens 2004 Olympics

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Ilia Malinin eyed new heights at figure skating worlds, but a jump to gold requires more

By Philip HershMar 25, 2023, 1:10 PM EDT

At 18 years old, Ilia Malinin already has reached immortality in figure skating for technical achievement, being the first to land a quadruple Axel jump in competition.

The self-styled “Quadg0d” already has shown the chutzpah (or hubris?) to go for the most technically difficult free skate program ever attempted at the world championships, including that quad Axel, the hardest jump anyone has tried.

It helped bring U.S. champion Malinin the world bronze medal Saturday in Saitama, Japan, where he made more history as the first to land the quad Axel at worlds.

But it already had him thinking that the way to reach the tops of both the worlds and Olympus might be to acknowledge his mortal limits.

Yes, if Malinin (288.44 points) had cleanly landed all six quads he did instead of going clean on just three of the six, it would have closed or even overcome the gap between him and repeat champion Shoma Uno of Japan (301.14) and surprise silver medalist Cha Jun-Hwan (296.03), the first South Korean man to win a world medal.

That’s a big if, as no one ever has done six clean quads in a free skate.

And the energy needed for those quads, physical and mental, hurts Malinin’s chances of closing another big gap with the world leaders: the difference in their “artistic” marks, known as component scores.

Malinin’s technical scores led the field in both the short program and free skate. But his component scores were lower than at last year’s worlds, when he finished ninth, and they ranked 10th in the short program and 11th in the free this time. Uno had an 18.44-point overall advantage over Malinin in PCS, Cha a 13.47 advantage.

FIGURE SKATING WORLDS: Chock, Bates, and a long road to gold | Results

As usual in figure skating, some of the PCS difference owes to the idea of paying your dues. After all, at his first world championships, eventual Olympic champion Nathan Chen had PCS scores only slightly better than Malinin’s, and Chen’s numbers improved substantially by the next season.

But credit Malinin for quickly grasping the reality that his current skating has a lot of rough edges on the performance side.

“I’ve noticed that it’s really hard to go for a lot of risks,” he said in answer to a press conference question about what he had learned from this competition. “Sometimes going for the risks you get really good rewards, but I think that maybe sometimes it’s OK to lower the risks and go for a lot cleaner skate. I think it will be beneficial next season to lower the standards a bit.”

So could it be “been-there, done-that” with the quad Axel? (and the talk of quints and quad-quad combinations?)

Saturday’s was his fourth clean quad Axel in seven attempts this season, but it got substantially the lowest grade of execution (0.36) of the four with positive marks. It was his opening jump in the four-minute free, and, after a stopped-in-your tracks landing, his next two quads, flip and Lutz, were both badly flawed.

And there were still some three minutes to go.

Malinin did not directly answer about letting the quad Axel go now that he has definitively proved he can do it. What he did say could be seen as hinting at it.

“With the whole components factor … it’s probably because you know, after doing a lot of these jumps, (which) are difficult jumps, it’s really hard to try to perform for the audience,” he said.

“Even though some people might enjoy jumping, and it’s one of the things I enjoy, but I also like to perform to the audience. So I think next season, I would really want to focus on this performing side.”

Chen had told me essentially the same thing for a 2017 Ice Network story (reposted last year by NBCOlympics.com) about his several years of ballet training. He regretted not being able to show that training more because of the program-consuming athletic demands that come with being an elite figure skater.

“When I watch my skating when I was younger, I definitely see all this balletic movement and this artistry come through,” Chen said then. “When I watch my artistry now, it’s like, ‘Yes, it’s still there,’ but at the same time, I’m so focused on the jumps, it takes away from it.”

The artistry can still be developed and displayed, as Chen showed and as prolific and proficient quad jumpers like Uno and the now retired two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan have proved.

For another perspective on how hard it is to combine both, look at the difficulty it posed for the consummate performer, Jason Brown, who had the highest PCS scores while finishing a strong fifth (280.84).

Since Brown dropped his Sisyphean attempts to do a clean quad after 26 tries (20 in a free skate), the last at the 2022 U.S. Championships, he has received the two highest international free skate scores of his career, at the 2022 Olympics and this world meet.

It meant Brown’s coming to terms with his limitations and the fact that in the sport’s current iteration, his lack of quads gives him little chance of winning a global championship medal. What he did instead was give people the chance to see the beauty of his blade work, his striking movement, his expressiveness.

He has, at 28, become an audience favorite more than ever. And the judges Saturday gave Brown six maximum PCS scores (10.0.)

“I’m so happy about today’s performance,” Brown told media in the mixed zone. “I did my best to go out there and skate my skate. And that’s what I did.”

The quadg0d is realizing that he, too, must accept limitations if he wants to achieve his goals. Ilia Malinin can’t simply jump his way onto the highest steps of the most prized podiums.

Philip Hersh, who has covered figure skating at the last 12 Winter Olympics, is a special contributor to NBCSports.com.

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Shoma Uno repeats as world figure skating champion; Ilia Malinin tries 6 quads for bronze

By OlympicTalkMar 25, 2023, 10:47 AM EDT

Japan’s Shoma Uno repeated as world figure skating champion, performing the total package of jumps and artistry immediately after 18-year-old American Ilia Malinin attempted a record-tying six quadruple jumps in his free skate to earn the bronze medal.

Uno, 25 and the leader after Thursday’s short program, prevailed with five quad attempts (one under-rotated) in Saturday’s free skate.

He finished, fell backward and lay on home ice in Saitama, soaking in a standing ovation amid a sea of Japanese flags. Japan won three of the four gold medals this week, and Uno capped it off with guts coming off a reported ankle injury.

He is the face of Japanese men’s skating after two-time Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu retired in July and Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama missed most of this season with leg and ankle injuries.

“There were many shaky jumps today, but I’m happy I was able to get a good result despite not being in a good condition these past two weeks,” Uno said, according to the International Skating Union (ISU). “I know I caused a lot of concerns to everyone around me, but I was able to pay them back and show my gratitude with my performance today.”

Silver medalist Cha Jun-Hwan became the first South Korean man to win a world championships medal. Cha, a 21-year-old who was fifth at the Olympics, had to change out broken skate boots before traveling to Japan, one year after withdrawing from worlds after a 17th-place short program, citing a broken skate boot.

FIGURE SKATING WORLDS: Results

Malinin, ninth in his senior worlds debut last year, planned the most difficult program of jumps in figure skating history — six quads, including a quad Axel. Malinin is the only person to land a quad Axel in competition and did so again Saturday. He still finished 12.7 points behind Uno and 7.59 behind Cha.

Malinin had the top technical score (jumps, spins, step sequences) in both programs, despite an under-rotation and two other negatively graded jumps among his seven jumping passes in the free skate.

His nemesis was the artistic score, placing 10th and 11th in that category in the two programs (18.44 points behind Uno). Unsurprising for the only teen in the top 13, who is still working on that facet of his skating, much like a young Nathan Chen several years ago.

“After doing a lot of these jumps — hard, difficult jumps — it’s really hard to try to perform for the audience,” said Malinin, who entered worlds ranked second in the field by best score this season behind Uno.

Chen, who is unlikely to compete again after winning last year’s Olympics, remains the lone skater to land six fully rotated quads in one program (though not all clean). Malinin became the youngest U.S. male singles skater to win a world medal since Scott Allen in 1965. He was proud of his performance, upping the ante after previously trying five quads in free skates this season, but afterward weighed whether the risk was worth it.

“Sometimes going for the risk, you get really good rewards, but I think that maybe sometimes it’s OK to lower the risks and try not to take as much risk and go for a lot cleaner skate,” he said. “I think that’ll be beneficial to do next season is to lower the standards a bit.”

Malinin was followed by Frenchman Kévin Aymoz, who before the pandemic was the world’s third-ranked skater behind Chen and Yuzuru Hanyu, then placed ninth, 11th and 12th at the last three global championships.

Jason Brown, a two-time U.S. Olympian, was fifth in his first international competition since last year’s Olympics. He was the lone man in the top 15 to not attempt a quad, a testament to his incredible artistic skills for which he received the most points between the two programs.

“I didn’t think at the beginning of the year that I even would be competing this year, so I’m really touched to be here,” the 28-year-old said, according to the ISU. “I still want to keep going [competing] a little longer, but we’ll see. I won’t do promises.”

Earlier Saturday, Madison Chock and Evan Bates became the oldest couple to win an ice dance world title and the second set of Americans to do so. More on that here.

World championships highlights air Saturday from 8-10 p.m. ET on NBC, NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app.

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