25 August 2008

Team Telegraph reflect on the magic moments, inspirational performances and enduring images from the past 17 days

Brough Scott

Usain Bolt got it right about his 100 metres. “It blew my mind,” he said, “and it blew the world’s mind.” It certainly blew mine.

Standing close to the track, it was in every sense unbelievable. One moment he was just another figure powering away from the blocks and then, after about 20m, he engaged another gear. I still can’t really believe it.

It was a moment when your brain couldn’t accept what the eye could see. The long, tall figure in the yellow Jamaican shirt had a completely different and slower stride pattern than any of the others. He just skimmed away from them and then he was waving and showboating to the crowd as the world-record figures of 9.69sec came up on the screen.

There was a quite unique ‘did we really see that?’ buzz right through the stadium. That morning we had seen Michael Phelps snatch his butterfly gold right out of the air. Over the last two weeks there have been a multitude of inspirational performances – especially from the Brits. But nothing to match the sight right in front of our eyes of a tall young man running faster than anyone in history.