Prince Harry to race against lightning bolt

02 February,2012 09:03 AM IST |   |  Agencies

The royal is going to challenge the world's fastest man to a race during his trip to Jamaica next month


The royal is going to challenge the world's fastest man to a race during his trip to Jamaica next month

He has taken on the Taliban, trekked across the Arctic and qualified as a combat helicopter pilot to earn his reputation as the Royal family's action man.

But Prince Harry will take on a challenge he can only lose when he runs against the fastest man in history on a visit to Jamaica next month.
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Call me Harry: Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, is keen on racing
Prince Harry at the rudimentary athletics track where he trains.
File pics/ Getty Images


The Prince will meet 100m world record holder Usain Bolt when he stops off at the Olympic champion's training track in Kingston during his first solo foreign tour. Royal sources have said that the Prince, who is an Olympic ambassador for Team Great Britain, is hoping to challenge Bolt to a "fun" race if it does not interrupt the athlete's training schedule.

"The Prince and Usain Bolt are keen for it to happen," said a royal insider. "Because the visit is at a critical time in the run-up to the London 2012 Games, the whole thing will depend on Usain Bolt's training schedule, which the Prince obviously doesn't want to interrupt."

Bolt (25), broke the 100m world record in 2009 by the biggest margin since digital timing was introduced.

Despite his achievements, Bolt still trains at a rudimentary athletics track which will be on Prince Harry's itinerary when he visits Jamaica at the beginning of March as the Royal family begin Diamond Jubilee tours of every Commonwealth country.

The 27-year-old is also expected to meet Jamaica's Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, who said in January that she intended to remove the Queen as head of state to turn the country into a republic.
The Prince will begin his tour in Belize on March 2, moving on to Jamaica and the Bahamas before undertaking a trade mission to Brazil.

By the time he arrives in Rio de Janeiro on March 9 his brother, William will be in the Falkland Islands flying his RAF Search and Rescue helicopter on a six-week tour of duty.

Prince Harry will then return to training with his Apache helicopter squadron. He has already undergone hostage training, during which he was hooded, threatened and told about the tortures he could face if he crashes and is captured by the Taliban.
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