Usain Bolt recovers from stumble to lead men in 100 qualifying

LONDON -- It was a stumble, nothing more.

But it definitely had 80,000 Usain Bolt-watchers scratching their heads.

Were they seeing another disaster-in-the-making, a la the false start that knocked the celebrated, world-record breaking Jamaican out of the 100-meter dash at last year's World Championships in South Korea?

Was the man once considered the Superman of his sport now proving himself merely mortal?

Well, the answers proved to be "no."

And there were 80,000 sighs of relief.

Bolt righted himself Saturday morning at Olympic Stadium, got on with it, and ran his first-round 100 in 10.09 seconds.

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This made him an easy heat winner and put him on track for a possible showdown with Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin for the title of the Fastest Man in the World.

Bolt, Gay, Gatlin and newcomer Ryan Bailey are among the 24 who advanced to Sunday's three semifinals in the 100. The top two finishers in each midday race, plus the next two fastest runners, advance to the 4:50 p.m. final, which has been the Games' hottest ticket.

"I made a bad step," Bolt said of his awkward start. "I stumbled a bit. I'm glad it happened now."

America's trio of Gatlin, Gay and newcomer Bailey ran faultlessly. Gatlin, the Brooklyn-born 2004 Olympic champion, still rehabbing his image following a still-disputed banishment for testing positive for a banned substance, ran a 9.97. Gay, the 2007 world champion, ran a 10.08. Bailey, a relative unknown from Oregon, outsped the entire field with a career-best 9.88.

With Bolt are his Jamaica teammates. Yohan Blake, who stunned Bolt and the track world with his 100 and 200 wins at the Jamaica Olympic Trials, punched in at 10 seconds flat. Asafa Powell, the former world-record holder now relegated to number three status in Jamaica, ran 10.04.

Other top qualifying marks include a 10.02 by Great Britain's Dwain Chambers (who endured a two-year drug banishment of his own), a 10.06 by the Ivory Coast's Ben Youssef Meité, a 10.07 by Japan's Ryota Yamagata, and a 10.09 by Canada's Justyn Warner.

Gatlin called his 9.97 "a good day at the office. The track was super fast, I just wanted to go out there and give the spectators a show. You feel the magic out there."

To the injury-prone Gay, it was nothing more than "a good run; I did what I needed to." Grading his performance, Gay gave himself a 75 percent.

The big shock of the morning came in the first round of the men's 400.

The United States has won seven consecutive golds in this event, but now it's a streak in jeopardy because 2008 Olympic champion and 2012 favorite LaShawn Merritt limped off the track with an apparent hamstring injury. "It's my left leg," Merritt said. "I injured it in Monaco [three weeks ago]; it felt like a cramp there.

"I had a plan [to join Michael Johnson as the second man to repeat as Olympic 400 champion] but it wasn't to be."

The United States still has two men in the 400 -- University of Florida's Tony McQuay and Southern Cal's Bryshon Nellum. McQuay, the 2011 U.S. national champion, advanced to the semifinals in 45.48. Nellum ran a 45.29.

Jonathan Borlée, a former Florida State runner, clocked a Belgian-national record 44:43 to pace all qualifiers. His identical twin brother, Kevin, advanced in 45.14.

Others on the qualifiers list include 2011 world outdoor champion Kirani James, the University of Alabama student running for Grenada (45.23); Texas A&M's Demetrius Pinder, running for the Bahamas (44.92), and Oscar Pistorius, the celebrated South African "blade runner," who ran 45.44.

Also in the three race, 24-runner semifinal mix is Lalonde Gordon, of Cambria Heights, Queens. Running for Trinidad and Tobago, Gordon ran a 45.43.

"With Merritt out, this makes it a totally wide-open race," said Gordon, a former student at Mohawk Valley Community College.

"Who knows what's going to happen now," said Gordon. "Anybody can win a medal, maybe even me."