Bolt plays it cool

Bolt has surprised onlookers with his seemingly casual preparation for races, the triple Olympic champion being happy to pose for the cameras and play to the crowd just seconds before the start. And the 22-year-old Jamaican sees no reason to change as he prepares to attempt adding world titles to his Olympic gold medals over 100 metres, 200m and the 4x100m relay.

"The time to get focused is when the starter says, 'Take your marks'," Bolt said on the eve of the opening rounds of the 100m in Berlin's Olympic Stadium, which take place on Saturday. "Before then I'm just chilling and relaxing."

While his rivals stare intently ahead and barely acknowledge their name being announced in the stadium, Bolt is playing up to the fans with his trademark 'Lightning Bolt' pose or flexing his muscles.

"It's fun to see some of the other guys standing there really tense," he added. "We've all done this hundreds of times before so you should not be tense."

Bolt's main rival, defending champion Tyson Gay, is one of those athletes who adopts a more traditional approach before the start of a race. But the American - the fastest man in the world this year with a time of 9.77 seconds in Rome - has no problems with Bolt's more unorthodox preparations.

"I am probably what you would call boring!" joked Gay, who won the 100m and 200m in Osaka in 2007 but failed to reach last year's Olympic final after his preparations were hampered by injury.

"I don't like to flex my muscles too much before a race. Usain is very exciting, funny and has a lot of personality, and he backs it up at the same time. It's good for the fans and it's good for me as well. Some people love the way I carry myself and some people love Usain."

The blue track in the stadium is rumoured not to be entirely suitable for sprinters, but hopes remain high the presence of Bolt and Gay in the same field will inspire one of them to break Bolt's world record of 9.69 seconds.

Gay added: "I believe Usain is going to try to break the world record, why wouldn't he? And if that's what it takes to win that's what I am going to try to do. If he's going to do 9.6secs that's what I'm going to do as well."