Blake won't beat me over 200m

MONTE CARLO, Monaco:

Double Olympic sprint champion and world-record holder, Usain Bolt, has warned his training partner and good friend Yohan Blake that he is in no mood to relent his dominance of the global sprinting scene, particularly as it relates to his pride and joy, the 200m.

Bolt, like the rest of the world, watched in amazement as Blake threatened the world and Olympic 200m champion's 19.19-second 200m record with a 19.26 seconds run at a Diamond League meeting in Brussels, Belgium, just days after he had won for himself a gold medal at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

Blake's time, just seven hundredths of a second off Bolt's best, has raised the interest in the event and has caused discussion as to whether or not the national 100m junior record holder, Blake, can in fact get the better of Bolt in his pet event.

Bolt has not lost a 200m since September 2007 and his last run was the fifth-fastest time ever recorded over the distance - 19.40 seconds in Daegu.

Bolt also holds three of the five fastest 200m times in history and six of the top 10. When asked if he considers Blake a real threat to his 200m world record and dominance, Bolt was very clear.

"I have said to Yohan (Blake) that the 200m is my favourite event and I won't let him beat me over 200m," said Bolt in Monaco yesterday. "100m? Maybe, he will have a better chance there, but I have worked hard to perfect the 200m over the years so I have already told him that I won't let it happen.

"It will be fun because the 200m is my heart and soul and that's what I'm focused on, so we'll see what happens," Bolt added, while underlining that he is not focusing too much on Blake or any other competitor.

"I never take one person as a rival, it's always the seven persons in a final or on the track with me. Yohan is definitely a great athlete, no doubt about that, but this is an Olympic year and in an Olympic year people always pop up and there will be a lot of guys running fast. Guys always show up on the day so for me I focus on everybody," Bolt added, before looking back to that night in Brussels.

"I have gotten over it," he smiled. "When I was asked about the next big thing coming out of Jamaica, I said it would be Yohan from back then because I saw it coming. I train with him and know what he's capable of.

"In Brussels, initially I was shocked with the time because he is not a great curve runner, but he is a great athlete and with great athletes you have to expect anything. Great things come with hard work and he works very hard," said Bolt, who in addition to his 200m world record, is also the owner of the best-ever 100m time; 9.58, which was posted in the 2009 IAAF World Championships final in Berlin, Germany.