Bolt and Bekele proving invincible

Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele have continued to utterly dominate their events at the World Championships in Berlin.

Reuters

Jamaican Bolt strolled through his 200m heat on Tuesday and his chances of winning a second gold medal were boosted by the news that rival Tyson Gay had pulled out of the event.

Bolt, who won the 100m in a new world record of 9.58 seconds on Sunday, will line out in the semi-finals on Wednesday and it would be a major surprise if he failed to qualify for Thursday’s final.

Kenenisa Bekele is another athlete who looks unbeatable at present. The Ethiopian star won his fourth successive 10,000m title on Monday night – equalling his fellow countryman Haile Gebrselassie’s record.

The reigning Olympic champion and world record holder over both the 5,000m and 10,000m, Bekele set a new championship record of 26 minutes 45.11 seconds to comfortably beat Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea and Moses Masai of Kenya.

Tadese led for 13 laps before Bekele raced by him with ease in the final 400 metres. The 27-year-old remains unbeaten over the distance and says he has no plans to let up any time soon.

"If no one is beating me, why should I stop?" he said. "No athletes are beating me, I am enjoying my running and I am so happy. I see no reason to stop."

Bekele has not yet ruled out running in the 5,000m on Thursday.

In the women’s 100m, Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser beat her Jamaican compatriot Kerron Stewart to the gold on Monday.

Her time of 10.73 seconds was the third fastest in history and it needed to be, too, as she held off a late charge by Stewart, who clocked 10.75 seconds.

Afterwards Fraser said that rather than feeling under more pressure, she felt inspired by Bolt’s run at the weekend.

"There was no pressure on me. When I saw he ran 9.58 I sent a text to my friend saying 'this boy is not human at all'," she said. "I was just excited for everyone and it shows the hard work Jamaican athletes put in.

"I knew it would be my time today. It was motivating because Usain and Asafa (Powell) were magnificent. It was our time to rise to the occasion and we did that.”