TOKYO, Japan – Leg­endary sprint­er Us­ain Bolt is op­ti­mistic that one of Ja­maica’s three rep­re­sen­ta­tives in the men’s 100 me­tres at the World Cham­pi­onships can win the mar­quee event and be­come the first Ja­maican to win the event in a decade.

Kis­hane Thomp­son, Oblique Seville and Akeem Blake will seek to be­come the first Ja­maican to claim the men’s world ti­tle since Bolt achieved the feat back in 2015, when the Cham­pi­onships get un­der­way on Sat­ur­day.

Bolt, an eight-time Olympic gold medal­ist and 11-time World cham­pi­on who is wide­ly re­gard­ed as the great­est sprint­er of all time, said he is hope­ful of a Ja­maican vic­to­ry in the event.

“I’m hap­py. As you said, it’s been a while since just the girls have been car­ry­ing it, so I’m hap­py to see this.

“I don’t feel like they should lose. [If] any­one of them win, then I’ll be hap­py for it,” Bolt told The Glean­er.

Thomp­son, the world leader, has a sea­son’s best time of 9.75 sec­onds, while Seville’s sea­son’s best of 9.83 will see both men en­ter­ing the cham­pi­onships ranked first and fifth, re­spec­tive­ly.

Blake, who has clocked 9.88 sec­onds, sits just out­side the top 10, ranked 11th glob­al­ly.

Bolt said if ei­ther of them were to win gold, he’d be ho­n­oured to present them with the medal.

“I’m just look­ing for­ward to be­ing in the sta­di­um and be able to cheer them on and maybe even get to present a gold medal to one of them.

“That’s some­thing that I’d re­al­ly love, so I just wish them all the best, and I know they will do well,” Bolt said.

CMC