RIO DE JANEIRO – How did Usain Bolt celebrate winning a ninth Olympic gold medal?
He went into a darkened Olympic Stadium, surrounded by volunteers — and started throwing a javelin.
Really.
After his news conference ended in the wee hours of Saturday morning, the Jamaican sprint superstar who says the Rio Games are his last Olympics came back onto the track with most of the lights in the stadium having already been turned off.
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Bolt took a couple throws of the javelin, the last one going about 50 metres.
He posed for some pictures afterward, the javelin — which he requested a formal measurement of — still stuck in the Olympic Stadium turf.
Bolt’s final throw, by the way, would have earned him a sixth-place finish at this year’s Jamaican national championships.
Bolt bid a blazing-fast farewell to the Rio Games — and likely the Olympics altogether — with yet another anchor leg for the ages. He turned a close 4×100 relay race against Japan and the United States into a never-a-doubt runaway, helping Jamaica cross the line in 37.27.
READ MORE: Canada gets bronze in men’s 4x100m relay after U.S. disqualified
Bolt’s record in Olympic finals is nine races, nine wins. Nobody’s done that before, and nobody’s on the horizon to do it again soon.
“I am just relieved. It’s happened,” he said. “I am just happy, proud of myself. It’s come true.”
Japan won the silver medal, finishing .33 seconds behind.
Meanwhile, the U.S. team was disqualified — again.
The disqualification came after the U.S. exchanged illegally outside the zone at the first change. As a result, Canada was elevated to the bronze-medal position.
It was the ninth time since 1995 that the U.S. men have been disqualified or failed to get the baton around at an Olympics or world championships.
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