The towering Jamaican said he was only 50-50 about running at the next world championships in 2017 in London, and could retire at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics instead.
“After Rio, as I said, my sponsors want me to go one more year, but my coach said, ‘Listen to me, if you’re not going to be serious about going to the world championships in London,’ then I shouldn’t do it,” he said.
“So it’s all about how I feel after <g data-gr-id="34">Rio,</g> if I feel I can really put my body through one more season. If I’m going to be focused and I’m going to be determined. That will determine if I compete after Rio. So we’ll see how it goes.”
Bolt, troubled by pelvic problems this year, was pushed all the way by Justin Gatlin in Sunday’s 100m, but had an easier ride in the 200m as he beat the American by nearly two-tenths of a second.
It was the fourth consecutive world 200m title for the 29-year-old, who has won all but one world and Olympic sprint competitions since he lit up the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
However, Bolt’s celebrations came to a sticky end at the Bird’s Nest stadium on Thursday when a TV cameraman riding an electric scooter lost control and ploughed into him from behind, sending the Jamaican flying.
“I probably should get my legs insured,” smiled the six-times Olympic champion. “It was pretty scary when it <g data-gr-id="28">happened</g> but accidents happen.”
Footage of the incident quickly went viral, with “Segways”, referring to the electric scooter, trending on Twitter on Friday. Some Chinese Internet users commented that the cameraman was the only person who was able to take down Bolt in Beijing.
“The only guy in the world who can defeat Bolt,” a user with the handle “<g data-gr-id="29">Sehun</g>” posted on his Twitter-style <g data-gr-id="30">weibo</g> account.
Liu breaks China gold drought, Eaton leads decathlon
Liu Hong won the women’s 20 kilometres walk on Friday to hand China its first gold medal of the Beijing world championships, as defending champion Ashton Eaton took control of the decathlon. Liu gave home fans something to cheer when she headed a Chinese one-two in the walk with “little sister” Lu Xiuzhi.
The pair broke early and built up a massive lead in Beijing’s scorching morning heat, with Liu coming home for gold in one hour 27.45 minutes with Lu right behind her. Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Olyanovska took bronze, 28 seconds behind. “There was a lot of pressure but I was confident in this mission,” said Liu, who added that she had struck a pact with Lu, her junior by seven years, not to race each other in the final kilometres.