Usain Bolt has shared the unusual reason he decided to stop competing in the 400m race, despite initially enjoying it in the early stages of his career.
The Jamaican sprinting icon, a three-time Olympic 100m champion, explained that his coach, Glen Mills, along with others, believed he was more suited for the longer sprint, leading him to almost specialize in the 400m instead, much to his dismay.
Bolt explained that although he liked the 400m, he eventually stopped running it to focus on the 100m, a decision that paid off given his impressive career record. “Running the 400m wasn’t fun at all. It was always pain. But I was good at it, so I used to do it. However much as I did it, though, I never liked it. So I stopped and went back to the 100m. You could say I’m happy it worked out,” Bolt said in an interview with TalkSport.
He also shared his thoughts on the demanding nature of training for sprinting, emphasizing that the over-distance runs were among the toughest. “The over-distance runs are the hardest thing we do in training, because when you feel that lactic acid you can’t walk, you can’t sit down, you don’t know what to do – it takes a while to get it out of your system,” he added.
Bolt, the most successful male athlete in World Championships history, also emphasized that his focus has always been on technique rather than chasing specific times. “All we try to focus on is technique because, the better you get at these things, the better the times will get. When the champs come, then you can try to run fast,” he said.
The 38-year-old holds numerous records, including being the first athlete to win four World Championship titles in the 200m and winning three World Championship titles in the 100m. He also made history by becoming the first person to run sub-9.7s and sub-9.6s in the 100m.
