ONE LAST TIME

The British summer is in full swing and the air is filled with warmth. But London is getting ready for temperature to go up the new scales when the athletes from all around the world will be hitting the London to participate in ‘Heats’. World Athletic Championships are starting on 4^th and the venue is London Olympic stadium. The Olympic stadium will be packed to it’s full capacity of 60000 as the sports enthusiasts wants to witness their favourite athletes go by. One more reason worth traveling half way across the world is, this Championship will be marked as the last tournament for two legendary athletes world has ever seen. Distance runner Mo Farah and fastest human being Usain Bolt will run in the competitive circuit for one last time.

When it comes to distance running there is only one name that pops in our head, Mo Farah. British runner who started winning medals since he ran in juniors. But the turning point of his career came in 2010 and from their he has ended on podium in every individual race he has participated, except one race in 2012. The event that brought him in spotlight was London Olympics 2012. Mo Farah won two Golds events of 5000m and 10000m, in front of his home crowd.These two events have become his most favourite and when it comes to these events there is no one else favourite to win them. If winning Olympic Gold is hard the defending that medal is even more harder. When the biggest stage was set again in 2016 at Rio, he entered his events as favourite. This time once again he performed as everyone were expecting him to perform. Defending both Gold medals and striking his trademark ‘Mobot’ pose, was a sight to watch. So far he has 18 Golds, 8 Silvers and 2 bronze medals to his name, and counting. Life has come to full circle for Mo Farah when he will run in events of 5000m and 10000m at the same venue where he caught world’s attention. He will be running for final time in front of his own home crowd.

Mo Farah in his Mabot pose

The only name that ruled the world of Sprints for last 10 years, Sprint King Usain Bolt. He was Jamaican sensation since his days in Juniors and he entered the 2004 Athens Olympics as favourite. But this was the Olympics worth forgetting for Bolt when he finished 5^th in very 1^st heat and failed to qualify for finals. That was his last failure. 2008 Beijing Olympics saw totally modified Bolt from 2004 Athens. This time he won 2 Golds in 100m and 200m events, setting new World Records for each of them. Year later he bettered his own timing to set new world records in World Championships of 2009 and was nicknamed as ‘Lightning Bolt’. 100m and 200m are the events where he haven’t allowed anyone else to strike the Gold ever since. As next Olympic neared, experts started saying “Lightning doesn’t strike twice.” The Champion answered them in his own way, by proving that “Lightning can strike not just twice but thrice” when he defended his medals in both London 2012 and Rio 2016. His 2009 world records of 100m in 9.58 seconds and 200m in 19.19 seconds, are untouched till now. Sprints is the event where fate can change in a blink of an eye but he dominated the track like no one ever did. Winning one Olympic Gold in sprints is considered as most prestigious but winning 8 is something unreal. This is why with each Olympics he was upgraded from Sprinter to Champion to Legend. 

The Lightning Bolt celebration

Years passed in flash and this golden era of tracks is coming to an end with two greats of sports retiring in the same tournament. We will feel their absence when someone else will be named as favourite in 2020 Olympics. Everything from crowd cheering on their entry to striking their trademark poses after winning, will be missed. London world Championship is the last chance we all have to witness everything we will be missing soon, when they run for One Last Time.

The schedule of the legend's last runs: 
Mo Farah: 
10000m Final-5^th August 1:50am 
5000m Final-13^th August 0:50am

Usain Bolt:
100m Final-6^th August 2:15am
4x100m Final-13^th August 2:20am
(All timings in IST)