Bolt's 10 seconds of work equals hours of fun stories

Guess what the great man did after reminding the world that he was still the fastest man on the planet? He went and partied until well past three in the morning with three Swedish female handball players. Wow, you might ask, with the 200 metres coming up? Either it is a show of supreme confidence or Usain Bolt is just human, like you and me ... well not exactly, but you get the drift. But look at it this way, the race was run at 9.50pm. It might have taken just 9.63 seconds for Bolt to crush the pretenders to his throne, but it took a tad longer for him to get past the press.

He had to run the gamut of the world's media waiting for a quick soundbite - and they wouldn't have allowed him to get away in under 10 seconds - and then also attend the mandatory post-race press conference. The adrenaline would still have been coursing through his body even a couple of hours later when he got back to the Athletes' Village, where he was mobbed by his fellow athletes and fans. Among them were Gabriella, Isabelle and Jamina, three Swedes who wanted to explain to Bolt the finer points of handball.

He might be the quickest human being on Earth but he allowed himself to be caught up by these lovelies and the party began in earnest. It is typical of Bolt. While the accepted practice would have been to put on hold all the partying until after the 200 metres final was run tomorrow and the relay on Saturday, he is anything but conventional.

Yet, he has placed a lot of emphasis on the 200m, saying that only if he wins it can he lay claim to be the GOAT - greatest of all time. Undoubtedly he is already well on his way to being regarded as the greatest sprinter the world has seen because the defence of his 100-metres gold won in Beijing is the first time any athlete has done it on the track.

Carl Lewis also won successive Olympic golds in the 100 metres, but his second gold was a result of Ben Johnson being stripped off the prize after testing positive for drugs a few days after the race was run at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. Now Bolt is attempting to defend the 200m gold medal he won four years ago. The only obstacle in his way is fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake, the only runner to beat Bolt in recent months in both sprint races.

Bolt and Blake has a nice ring to it. It looks like the rest of the field will be running for bronze as they did on Sunday. It was an electrifying atmosphere made even more pulsating by the raucous 80,000 fans, nearly all of whom were behind Bolt.

The crowds have sportingly cheered all athletes but have reserved their loudest cheer for their own British stars. This was not the case as far as Bolt was concerned. Everyone, unabashedly, seemed to be in his corner as they raised the roof. And the great man loved every bit of it, showboating in front of the TV cameras as he mimicked a deejay spinning tracks with his fingers.