Blake beats Bolt as Olympic 100m becomes more wide open

Yohan Blake was always considered the biggest threat to Usain Bolt in the 100m at the Olympics and there is a case that he could even go off favourite after posting the fastest time of the year to win the Jamaican trials.

Bolt may still be fastest man in the world after his 9.58sec in Berlin in 2009, but he is now not the fastest this season and certainly was not the fastest in Jamaica on Friday night.

A sluggish start was largely responsible for Bolt only finishing in second spot, 0.11secs slower than current world champion Blake, who also broke his own personal best by running 9.75secs.

Until the trials Blake had never run below 9.82secs, but now he is the fourth fastest 100m runner of all time and must be considered a serious threat to Bolt as he looks to repeat his 100m and 200m double from Beijing four years ago.

For Bolt, it was his first proper race with Blake since being disqualified in the 100m final in the World Championships last year and only the second time that he had been beaten in two years.

He has not enjoyed the most dominant of seasons, especially when running 10.04secs in Ostrava.

Things did improve when Bolt clocked 9.76secs in Rome, but with Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay also running quickly in the US trials, a victory for the defending Olympic champion is certainly not a foregone conclusion.

Double Olympic champion Ed Moses, who had his success in the 400m hurdles, had stated ahead of the Jamaican trials that he was sceptical as to whether Bolt would win both sprints in London.

Asafa Powell took third in the Jamaican trials to book his place in London, but making the final looks the best he can hope for and a medal would represent a bit of a surprise.