Bolt advances to semis of Olympic 200M sprint

Usain Bolt served up a speedy reminder Monday night that despite losing one of the Beijing Games' biggest attractions, there's still plenty to look forward to in Olympic track and field.

The Jamaican sprinter easily won his quarterfinal heat in the men's 200-meter race Monday night, jogging down the stretch to finish in 20.29 seconds and still topping defending gold medalist Shawn Crawford of the United States by 0.13 second.

Bolt, who ran a world-record 9.69 seconds to win the 100 on Saturday, is trying to become the first man to pull off the sprint double since Carl Lewis in 1984.

"I'm just going out there all the time to do my thing and show the world I'm probably the best," Bolt said.

The Jamaican actually finished second in his opening heat earlier in the day - proving that, yes, he can be beaten - but the stakes rise incrementally in heat races.

His victory in the second round brought cheers to replace the tears that filled the Bird's Nest earlier in the day with the sudden departure of Chinese star Liu Xiang in the 110-meter hurdles.
         

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Sport Breaking News
    Susanthika Jayasinghe is placed second in the 200m heats & qualifies for the next round at Olympics-JNW JNW - 2008-08-19 07:40:39  
 
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