‘I just want to retire on a winning note’: track king Usain Bolt eyes final hurrah at world championships in London

Sprint superstar Usain Bolt will seek a final golden hurrah when he takes to the track at the IAAF World Championships in London this week.

Bolt has dominated sprinting since taking double individual gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, going on to win a further six Olympic golds and also picking up 11 world titles.

World records of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds in the 100 and 200 metres when winning in the 2009 Berlin worlds were followed by the towering Jamaican winning consecutive world golds in the 100, 200 and 4x100-metres relay in 2011, 2013 and 2015, with the exception of a false start in the 100 metres in Daegu in 2011.

The 30-year-old scored triple gold at both the 2012 and 2016 Olympics in London and Rio, his sole hiccup being stripped of his 2008 Olympic relay gold after teammate Nesta Carter failed a drugs test.

It is a staggering tally for a track athlete who has admitted he wants to go out on a high as athletics seeks to turn a new page.

“My main aim is just to win (in London). I just want to retire on a winning note,” Bolt said recently in Monaco, where he won the 100 metres in 9.95 seconds, dipping under the 10-second barrier after two sluggish outings in Kingston and Ostrava.