Bolt now wants false-start rule changed

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif (AP):

World 100m and 200m record holder Usain Bolt has had a change of heart where the false-start rule is concerned.

He is now calling for a rethink by the sport's regulators as far as the current policy of disqualifying anyone who false-starts at the first offence.

Bolt, who himself jumped the gun during the 100m final at the World Championships in Athletics, is now of the view that the authorities should revert to the previous false-start rule which sees the first offence charged to the entire field as a warning, and each subsequent false start being punished with an ejection for the offending athlete.

"They (IAAF) really should go back to one false start and charge it to the field. It's easier. Somebody makes one mistake and everybody can relax," said Bolt.

Bolt, who will be vacationing in Las Vegas for the first time, is scheduled to begin his preparation for next year's Olympic Games in London in October.

Dissimilar to his modest ambitions for this year's World Championships - where he stated he simply wanted to successfully defend his titles, Bolt is looking to set the world alight in London.

"I want to go to the Olympics and wow people," he said. "I want to be a legend."

Usain Bolt said he was kidding when he said "all the tutoring stopped" after training partner Yohan Blake ran the 200 metres in 19.26 seconds earlier this month.

"I was laughing when I actually said it," Bolt said.

Looking for controversy

Blake's time in a meet at Brussels was the second-fastest 200m in history, just 0.07 seconds off Bolt's world record.

Bolt was in California to raise US$100,000 for his foundation and talked about his false start at the World Championships and his plans between now and next summer's London Olympics.

Bolt said he believes people are looking for controversy.

He and Blake are countrymen, and some believe it's Blake who will be Bolt's toughest competition in London.

Bolt said it wasn't true.

"Everything's right with me and Blake," he said before calling Blake "the future of Jamaica. He's the one. ... If he beats me, so be it. I don't want him to."

Bolt said no one in particular is his biggest rival and that he doesn't focus on any single competitor.

"First they said it was Tyson Gay, and then they said it was Asafa Powell. Then all of a sudden, they said it's Blake," Bolt said.

"You can't focus your energy on one person, and then they drop out. What do you do? I focus on the seven people in the lanes with me."