Usain Bolt won the 200 meters in 19.32 seconds Thursday night, making him the only man with two Olympic titles in that event.
He added it to the 100 gold he won Sunday, duplicating the 100-200 double he produced at the Beijing Games four years ago. In 2008, Bolt broke world records in both.
This time, Bolt led a Jamaican sweep, with his training partner and pal Yohan Blake getting the silver in 19.44, and Warren Weir taking the bronze in 19.84 — nearly a half-second behind the champion.
Bolt’s time was exactly the same as three-time individual Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson’s when the American set the then-record at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics; back then, the thinking was that would stand as the mark for decades.
Then along came Bolt.
His 19.30 in the 200 final at Beijing still stands as the Olympic record — and certainly would have been eclipsed Thursday with a full-fledged sprint through the finish — but Bolt bettered that with a 19.19 at the 2009 world championships, where he also set the current 100 record of 9.58.
In all, the 25-year-old Bolt has won seven of the last eight major individual sprint titles in the 100 and 200 at Olympics and world championships, a four-year streak of unprecedented dominance. The only exception was a race he never got to run: Bolt was disqualified for a false start in the 100 final at last year’s world championships, and Blake won.
He’ll try to make it 6 for 6 over the last two Olympics in the 4×100-meter relay. Qualifying starts Friday; the final is Saturday.
Information from Espn.com and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
