Usain Bolt wins ninth Olympic gold in 4x100m relay

Usain Bolt has won his ninth Olympic gold medal. Bolt needed the help of his 4x100m relay teammates to win his last Olympic gold before retirement, but not as much as they needed his help to win the medal.

Bolt took over on the last leg with a narrow deficit to Japan but soon overcame it and won by a wide-margin after some fine support from Asafa Powell, Yohan Blake and Nickel Ashmeade.

Usain Bolt won the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay gold medals at Beijing in 2008, London in 2012, and now here in Rio to complete his collection.

Bolt, 29, had won the 100m and 200m in Rio and is the only man to win all three sprint events at three Games.

Jamaica won in a time of 37.27 seconds. Japan came second in 37.60s, with Canada third in 37.64s and the USA team were disqualified.

It was Bolt’s third gold of the games, the last of his three and the least of the three.

Bolt said: “I’m just happy to have done what I came here to do. I’m just proud of myself. I have to give thanks to the guys, they really came through for me and I’m really happy about that.

“The pressure is real, but I look at it as an accomplishment. I enjoy pressure and I live for these moments. For me, it’s beautiful.

“I won’t celebrate now. I’m just going to go home and stay up late tonight, just talking and having fun.

“I’m just happy and relieved. I’ve done it and it’s unreal. I never knew from the start that this was going to happen to me and now it has it’s a brilliant feeling. I told the guys that if they didn’t come through for me I’d beat them up!”

“We wanted to win to make Usain immortal and he is immortal,” Blake added. “I’ve told him he should come back for 2020!”