Lighting-Fast Bolt Smashes 100-Meter Record

Jamaica's Usain Bolt shattered the world record for the 100-meter race today, shearing more off the previous best time—his own—than anyone in recorded history, reports the Chicago Tribune. With a 2 mph tailwind, the 22-year-old clocked in at just 9.58 seconds—0.11 seconds faster than the 9.69 record time he set at the 2008 Olympics.

Bolt struck several poses before the gun, imitating a lightning bolt and then an aircraft taking off. But the track performance at the Berlin stadium was far from hype. One commentator said Bolt's time was "some kind of unicorn-like fantasy." His American rival Tyson Gay finished second in 9.71, the third-fastest time in history, beaten only by Bolt's two world records.

(More Usain Bolt stories.)