Jamaica Gleaner
Published: Tuesday | December 15, 2009
Home : Sport
Bolt vs Obama!

The sprint king of track & field, Usain Bolt, has again found himself among some of the world's most influential persons, including United States president Barack Obama.

Bolt, who in the past two years took the world by storm, has been nominated alongside President Obama, who he had beaten in an Askmen.com Most Influential Men of 2009 Poll in October for the Time magazine Person of the Year.

Other nominees include Speaker of the House (United States), Nancy Pelosi, Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, US Geneneral Stanley McChrystal and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

The winner will be announced this week.

Bolt set sprint world records (9.69 seconds - 100m) and (19.30 seconds - 200m) at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and lowered those marks to 9.58 seconds (100m) and 19.19 seconds (200m) at this year's World Championships in Berlin, Germany.

On both occasions he helped Jamaica's team win the sprint relay titles.

On Sunday, Bolt was announced as BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year. He had earlier won the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Male Athlete of the Year and The Gleaner Man-of-the-Year awards.


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