Bolting for Kenya

From Omulo Okoth in Monte Carlo

The world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, will visit Kenya next year.

The Jamaican sprint machine, whose brilliant hat-trick of Olympic gold medals in Beijing Games last August still reverberates through the entire sporting world as if it only happened last week, told a packed press conference he has been invited to Kenya by a friend.

"I fear wild animals and diseases like cholera that I read are the order of the day in Africa. But I have been invited by Puma chairman (Jochen Zeits) to tour Kenya and we shall come sometime next year," said Bolt at the Hotel Fairmont in Monaco.

Bolt is conscious of, but unfazed all the same by the celebrity status he commands in Europe and Jamaica.

He supports Manchester United and (Jamaica’s national football team) Reggae Boys.

He admires Cristiano Ronaldo and Steven Gerrard. He also likes watching long distance races. He is, however, amazed that some athletes can run for 20 laps and still sprint.

Bolt admires Ethiopia’s double Olympic gold medalist, Tirunesh Dibaba. Like majority of Caribbean people, Bolt is a keen cricket enthusiast and would be a fast bowler if the bug of athletics hadn’t bitten him.

"I love watching test matches although we (West Indies) are not doing so well at the moment," he says.

"Are you a wealthy person?" he is asked. No, no. I am just a competitor, he offers, but hastens to add that he made some good money this season. When asked whether people in Kingston streets expect money from him all the time, he answers in the affirmative.

"Whenever I have money, I give them, but I still have to watch over my shoulders, "he says

But Bolt denied plans for a 400m debut, saying: "For the time being, the emphasis is on 100m and 200m at next year’s World Championships (Berlin)."

He stunned the packed Press conference by his insistence that he did the right thing and was only being himself when he celebrated his 100m Olympic gold victory in Beijing in a manner that drew criticism by no less a person than International Olympic Committee President Jaques Rogge.

Doping tests

"It does not bother me much as long as I do the right thing. People have a right of saying whatever they wish, but I was only being myself," said Bolt.

He also downplayed speculation that followed his hat-trick of doping, saying: "We regularly undertake dope testing, blood-testing in Jamaica.

"It does not bother me much because I know I am clean," he said.

Former multiple Olympic and world champion, Carl Lewis, alluded to Bolt’s cheating when he said athletes in the Caribbean hardly go through dope testing.

He said he won’t be running indoors either "because I am too tall". He also won’t live in Europe where he regularly races.

"I don’t like cold weather and I just have to live and train in Jamaica," he said. Bolt said he is behind schedule in training and will embark on it immediately he returned home from Monaco where he won the Athlete of the Year Award.

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