'I didn't think I would upstage Johnson', admits sprint king Bolt

Usain Bolt will have to wait until this evening to receive his second gold medal of these Games but his supremacy among his generation of sprinters was acknowledged without delay.

Each generation throws up a speed merchant who takes our breath away. In the Eighties it was Carl Lewis; in the Nineties Michael Johnson. Now Bolt has surpassed both.

His time of 19.30sec to win the 200metres removed Johnson's 12-year-old world and Olympic record that we once thought might survive his lifetime, and his second gold emulates Lewis's performance in winning both sprints at the 1984 Olympics.

The delay to the presentation of the medals by another outstanding sprinter, Frankie Fredericks, now an IOC member, was caused by the third-placed Walter Spearmon's disqualification for running out of his lane on the curve.

Spearmon appealed, claiming it was only one step on the line and the jury needed the night to think about it, only to throw it out and then disqualify second finishing Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles for an identical misdemeanour.

Fourth placed American Shawn Crawford was thus elevated to the silver medal position, with team-mate Walter Dix upgraded to bronze. Britain's Christian Malcolm, who finished seventh, was promoted to fifth.

But that reshuffle should not distract attention from the main man. Like Johnson, but unlike so many other sprinters, Bolt runs the bend. He seems to have been born with an inherent ability to treat it as if it was banked and his speed coming off it leaves him running the straight like a 100m runner with a flying start.

The average of his two consecutive 100s in last night's final was faster than the phenomenal 100m world record he set only four days ago, a feat that only the rarest of men - Lewis was one - have ever achieved in in the Olympic Games.

'I never expected this. I knew the track was a fast one but I didn't think this was possible,' Bolt said, echoing the prediction of Johnson that he would fail to break his record. 'I just told myself to leave everything on the track.

'I got out good, I ran the corner as hard as possible and once I entered the straight I told myself to "Keep it up, don't die on me now",' said the 6ft 5in Jamaican.

'It's a dream come true.'