Slowing down cost Jamaican gold medallist 0.14 seconds off world record run, say scientists
It's the Olympic question left unanswered - just how fast would 100m champion Usain Bolt have run if he had not started his gold-medal celebrations early?
Now all can be revealed - and the 'Lightning' Bolt might want to strike himself for his time-consuming antics.
Even though the 22-year-old (pictured) cut his own world record from 9.72 to seconds to 9.69 and romped into the history books at the Beijing final, he sold himself short, a team of scientists have calculated. The theoretical physicists - who usually study the mysteries of the deep cosmos - used television footage of the race to calculate Bolt's potential time by studying his position, speed and acceleration.
They claim if the Jamaican sensation had kept up his blistering pace, he would had sizzled past the finish line to win the race in a breathtaking, untouchable 9.55 seconds.
The team's measurements showed Bolt and Richard Thomson, the runner up from Trinidad and Tobago, slowed in the final two seconds of the race.