Usain Bolt’s desire to beat his 9.4 seconds world record

Every now and then, a talent emerges who stands head and shoulders above their peers.

Three years ago millions watched with incredulity as a young Jamaican sprinter sauntered improbably past the fastest men in the world to win the Olympic title. He followed it up, one year later, with the world crown.

World records too were swept aside in his wake. His very name – Bolt – suggested speed was his destiny.

Yet, on the face of it, Usain Bolt is an athlete who should merely be “good” – not revolutionary. Fast maybe, but certainly not the fastest man ever to have walked this earth. He’s too gangly, he starts too slowly, his technique is strewn with errors – and of course he has that penchant for eating fried chicken.

I enjoy track and field. But I can’t let track and field not let me enjoy my life. Usain Bolt

Which is maybe the secret of his success. Interview many professional sportspersons and they are nervous, flighty, even just plain uninterested. But Bolt is unerringly calm, instantly likeable, and appears to have mastered the knack of just being himself.

“I enjoy track and field”, he told Channel 4 News during a training session ahead of tonight’s Diamond League meet in Oslo. “But I can’t let track and field not let me enjoy my life.”

He’s a part-time DJ and says he wants to play football – ideally for Manchester United – when he retires from athletics.

“A lot of people grow up and they say I wish I’d done this or done that…I’m still young – I’m gonna try and enjoy myself. The key thing is you gotta know when to stop – and you gotta know what you need to do to stay on top, and to get to the top”.

How do the fastest men in history measure up to today's champion? Read "Lightning" Bolt leads the field.

It’s been a bad year for Bolt – he missed much of last season through injury, and has only managed to run the flagship 100m in 9.91 secs so far this year – more than a tenth of a second slower than his main challenger Tyson Gay.

On Thursday he clocked up a world-leading 19.86 seconds to win his season opening 200m race in Oslo. But his focus, he says, is the World Championships this summer in Korea – and then the London 2012 Olympics. And world records, he says, are what he wants.

100m in under 10 seconds used to be the holy grail. It went down by increments until a 21-year-old Bolt got in on the act – running 9.72 just before the Beijing Olympics. He set a new world record of 9.69 in the Olympic final – while famously slowing down for the last 10 metres. The year later he smashed that record by the biggest margin since records began – setting 9.58 at the Berlin World Championships.

The next target? 100m in under 9.4 seconds. Until recently, it was an ambition that seemed literally impossible – but not, it seems, for Usain Bolt.

“I’m hoping”, he says. “I’m gonna give it my best, I know people would love to see that, and I’d love to see that too.”