Michael Holding proud of countryman Bolt's achievements

Michael Holding is over the moon after watching Usain Bolt rule the World Championship. The fast bowling legend calls him the greatest athlete ever

Michael Holdingu00a0is over the moon after watching Usain Bolt ruleu00a0theu00a0World Championship. The fast bowling legend calls him the greatest athlete ever

Former West Indies fast bowling great Michael Holding. PIC/GETTY IMAGES

Michael Holding is quick to stress that he was never an athlete. "Thatis a fallacy. People keep bringing it up and I keep telling them thatit's not the case," he says over the phone from London. This clarification does not mean he is not a huge track and field fan.

Holding is a very proud Jamaican thanks to Usain Bolt's exploits at the World Athletics in Berlin.

He spoke to MiD DAY yesterday about the brilliance of Bolt:

You must be a very proud Jamaican in the wake of Usain Bolt's World Championship exploits...
The 100m gold at the Olympics was The proud time for me. Yes, he has broken the world record but the Olympics is the real thing. The entire Jamaica is proud of him and he shows you how good he is when he is breaking those world records. He's a great athlete. No one has run anything like him and it is unlikely anyone will be as good as him.

Is he your favourite athlete of all time?
No, I wouldn't say he is my all-time favourite athlete. He is the greatest athlete ever.

How did you feel when you watched him on TV?
It's not something you can describe. It is just fantastic but we all expected him to win because we knew he's better than the other guys. But to run in that sort of timing is just remarkable.

Did you expect a timing of 9.58 secs?
No one can expect anything like that. When you are breaking 100m world records, you don't expect them to be broken like that over that short a distance. You expect someone to shave off one hundredth of a second here or two hundredth of a second there. But to be shaving off tens of seconds is a lot. To be running that fast and making so much of a difference over so short a trip is not easy.

The athletics set-up in Jamaica must be pretty solid...
Yes. A lot of coaches come to watch our inter-school competitions and award scholarships to youngsters. There are a lot of good coaches. Glen Mills (Bolt's coach) is fantastic. Jamaica has always been good in athletics over the years. In the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, we won the gold medal in the 4x400 relay.