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On This Day: Usain Bolt cements legacy with 2nd world record in four days

Jamaica's Usain Bolt sets a new World Record to win the Men's 200m Final during the IAAF World Championships at the Olympiastadion, Berlin.
Jamaica's Usain Bolt set a new world record of 19.19 seconds in the men's 200m final of the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2009. (PA) (PA)

It is 12 years to the day since Usain Bolt broke his own men’s 200m world record in thrilling style.

On 20 August, 2009, the Jamaican sprinter ran 19.19 seconds over the distance in the final of the World Athletics Championships in Berlin, Germany.

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He knocked 11 hundredths of a second off his own previous world record.

The run was all the more impressive given one of the other runners, Frenchman David Alerte, made a false start, forcing Bolt and the rest of the field to reset.

Bolt storms ahead of the field in the 2009 World Championships 200m final. (Reuters)
Bolt storms ahead of the field in the 2009 World Championships 200m final. (Reuters) (Dominic Ebenbichler / reuters)
Bolt stormed out of the blocks in the 2009 final and the result was already a formality by the bend. (Getty)
Bolt stormed out of the blocks in the 2009 final and the result was already a formality by the bend. (Getty) (sampics via Getty Images)
Jamaica's Usain Bolt sets a new World Record to win the Men's 200m Final during the IAAF World Championships at the Olympiastadion, Berlin.
Usain Bolt crosses the line to set a new world record in the men's 200m final at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in August 2009. (PA)

When the race did get underway, Bolt was electric, posting the quickest reaction time out of the blocks and making the result a formality by the time he had ran the bend.

Not content with breaking the 100m world record at the same championships four days earlier (with a time of 9.58 seconds, a record that still stands today), Bolt kept going until the line.

His initial time was recorded as 19.20, but this was soon revised down to 19.19.

World's fastest man: Bolt celebrates his still-unbeaten world record. (Getty)
World's fastest man: Bolt celebrates his still-unbeaten world record. (Getty) (Kai Pfaffenbach / reuters)
Bolt celebrated in trademark fashion after setting the world record. (Reuters)
Bolt celebrated in trademark fashion after setting the world record. (Reuters) (Kai Pfaffenbach / reuters)

Bolt did not have the ideal preparation going into the championships, having injured his leg in a car crash that April. The injury prevented him from running the 200m bend in training for several weeks.

Bolt received a $100,000 bonus for breaking the 200m world record.

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Afterwards, Bolt said: “I keep telling people that my main aim is to become a legend.

“That’s the aim for me and that’s what I’m working on.

“It’s just a great feeling for me to have broken my world record. I didn’t know I was going to break it that bad. I was just trying my heart out and I got it right so I’m just happy.

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“I don’t know what is the limit for 200m. Anything is possible – I doubt people thought I would run 19.19. I didn’t think I would run 19.19.”

However, 19.19 has proved to be the limit, with the record standing for the past 12 years. And he did it all on the day before his 23rd birthday.

Usain Bolt jumps onto the platform tonight as he receives his Gold Medal for the 200m Event he won last night during the IAAF World Championships at the Olympiastadion, Berlin.
Usain Bolt was given a $100,000 bonus for breaking the 200m world record at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2009. (PA) (PA)
ATLANTA, GA - AUGUST 1:  Michael Johnson of the US (L)  poses for the press next to the clock after the men's Olympic 400m race at the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, 01 Aug. Johnson hurtled into history books in world record time as he completed an unprecedented Olympic double with the 400m and the 200m. Johnson clocked 19.32 sec to destroy Frankie Fredericks of Namibia (19.68) and Ato Boldon of Trinidad (19.80). (FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) AFP-IOPP/ Eric FEFERBERG  (Photo credit should read AFP-IOP/AFP via Getty Images)
American's Michael Johnson's previous men's 200m world record, set in Atlanta in 1996, had stood for 12 years. (AFP via Getty Images) (AFP IOPP via Getty Images)

That 200m made Bolt the first man to break both the 100m and 200m world records more than once.

His 0.62 second margin of victory was more than the sum total of winning margins of the five previous winners of the title combined.

By this point, Bolt had already won double gold for the 100m and 200m at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

In the 200m there, Bolt set a new world record of 19.30 seconds, breaking the long-standing time set by American Michael Johnson at the Atlanta Games in 1996 of 19.32 seconds.

Bolt would go on to repeat the gold sprint double at both London 2012 and Rio 2016.

The closest anyone else has come to his 200m world record was his Jamaican compatriot Yohan Blake, who ran 19.26 in Brussels in September 2011.

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