London: Goodbye then, Usain Bolt, human at last.

Bolt fell to his knees, bent forward and planted a kiss on the finish line. He struck his signature pose ‘To Di World’ and chants of ‘Usain Bolt’ reverberated around the stadium after a 15-minute lap of honor. Bolt, with much Jamaican bonhomie, was again the ringmaster at his own fete. He grinned.

After his last hundred meters solo the clock had shown 9.95 seconds, but when Bolt crossed the finish line astonishment and pure wonder were absent. Instead, shock and disgust prevailed. Justin Gatlin, the pantomime villain and ultimate antagonist, had clocked off at 9.92 seconds. The anti-climax was grotesque, the valediction outré. The new world champion was booed, the old one cheered. Bolt’s ending was a Shakespearean tragedy. The world felt apologetic.

All evening there had been a crackle in the air in East London with the sun setting over the Olympic Stadium, a steely cauldron and the centerpiece of London’s very own sporting Disneyland. Long good natured queues threaded over the bridge reminding one of the London 2012 Olympic Games - that 17-day hazy and heady roller coaster when the British were high on sporting success.

This was to be a spiritual flashback to those blessed nights. On Friday Mo Farah had furthered his ruthless tyranny in long distance running, toppling the plotting Kenyans and Ethiopians and causing ear-splitting decibels and spine-tingling vibes among his delirious fans. But Bolt’s last solo race was always going to trump Friday’s mini-Super-Saturday.

Here was the perfect superhero in the blue ribband event of the athletics world championships. Jamaicans, fans and admirers roared, a raucous razzle-dazzle of fame and speed with a London crowd hunkering for the ultimate, end-all and apocalyptic track and field experience. This was a Bolt-overdose in a grand setting, an epic exit center stage.

Bolt, the exuberant persona, was pure hyperbole again. Once more he soared into the imagination, a genetic freak as part of the global conscience. It was Bolt vs himself, then Bolt vs Chris Coleman, and finally, Bolt vs Justin Gatlin. They all craned to get a glimpse of him. After all, for too long, he had outpaced all his competitors and his entire sport.

He had been playing around backstage, teasing the mascot and chatting to South Africa’s Akani Simbine. Donning a hood, he oozed his conventional cool - this was just another race and no one was going to thwart the perfect send-off for humanity’s perfect running machine.

The runners were called to ‘set.’ A tense silence ensued. Bolt reacted slowly to the starting gun. At 6-feet-5 inches, that has always been a weakness of the Jamaican. His body can’t unfurl that rapidly. He was slow, so slow that the nigh impossibility of Bolt not winning surfaced in earnest. This time Bolt didn’t smile, He didn’t glance left or right - and didn’t pose for a snapchat photo. Bolt was chasing in a final. Robotically, he lifted his head. Gatlin, his body and muscles in sync, was powering forward to his left. Chris Coleman and other finalists were also ahead of him.

But Bolt’s habitual tour de force never came. His force-of-nature speed was lacking, a final burst of Bolt Supremacy was not to be. His terminal velocity and regal speed had abandoned him. Bolt and his body were no longer in sync with the universe. For once, he was outpaced. Bolt was no longer floating among the angels. He simply proved to be human.

The Jamaican had been slowing down since he set his world records of 9.58 seconds in the 100 meters and 19.19 in the 200 at the world championships in Berlin in 2009. During the denouement of his career speed and velocity were no longer his goals, but vehicles to achieve glory. His munificence was endless, his exploits mesmerizing and astounding. Bolt was the most compelling athlete of our age, his life forever compressed into ten seconds. Bolt’s 100m and 200m World and Olympic finals since 2008 have consumed less than four minutes.

He carried his sport, his defeat and farewell may well spell a dark age for athletics. The vigilante Gatlin is a drugs recidivist. The public roundly booed him. Without Bolt, athletics may become marginal again. But for now, gratitude and appreciation for St Leo must prevail. Next weekend he will speed away for one more time in the 4x100m relay. Miss him and you will never see him again.

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