Fastest man on Earth

While Team GB filled their Golden boots all over the w/e we're forced to play catchup after a bout of the heebie jeebies catches us unawares.

Away from cheering on the plucky Brits on Saturday, we come onto first major prestige Athletics event, the 100 metre final which traditionally also confers the title of fastest man on earth. That's quite a billing but this is one of the blue ribbon Olympic events that not only manage to live up to the hype but easily out sprint it.

Cast as a thrilling three way between the USA's Tyson Gay, and Jamaicans Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt, the script's rapidly rewritten in the semi when Gay is tragically knocked out, He's not quite fit and in a sport where success is measured in hundredths of a second, 'not quite' is an eternity away.

And then to the final which is a heady ten seconds worth of concentrated adrenaline pure machismo and raw unadulterated speed. There's something powerful and eminently sexy about this race, but like great sex it's all about a sustained lingering build up of tension and then a raw uncontained explosion of passion.

You can see it in the sheer physical presence of the runners as they take their marks, you can hear it in the reverential hush from the crowd before the off and you can feel it in your own heart beat as it speeds that faster in a sympathetic echo of the runners'.

The gun fires and Jamaica's Ussain Bolt destroys the competition, simply annihilates them, leaving the field not so much trailing as floundering in his slipstream. Bolt keeps on going, almost defying comprehension by easing up 15 metres before the end, but still cruising home in a new world record of 9.69 seconds.

Bolt paraded his golden boots for the cameras (and his sponsors) but Hermes winged sandals would have been even more appropriate.