Bolt's a man of few words after cruising into final

Shock! Horror! Hold the front page! Usain Bolt won a race in the Olympiastadion last night. He didn't have to try very hard.

In fact, the fastest man on the planet worked up more of a sweat zig-zagging past the battalion of reporters trying to prise a word from him in the bowels of the stadium than he appeared to have done in coasting to victory in his 200 metres semi-final in 20.08sec. He did not linger long. How did he feel? "Good." Was he still tired after his world record-breaking exertions in the 100m final last Sunday night? "No."

And that was that. It is unlikely that the Jamaican will linger very much longer on the track when it comes to the final. His only credible rival will be the trackside clock and there will be no British opposition, Marlon Devonish having finished seventh in the second semi-final in 20.62sec.

Thankfully for the British team, there will be representation in the men's 400m final tomorrow, Michael Bingham having clocked a personal best of 44.74sec as runner-up to defending champion Jeremy Wariner in his semi-final. And thankfully for track and field, it was confirmed yesterday that all anti-doping tests from the men's 100m final have registered negative for drugs.