World Championships - 100m final live! Usain Bolt bids to end solo career with final gold in London
Follow all the live action from the men's 100m finals at the London Stadium
Usain Bolt’s glittering career draws to a close at the World Athletics Championships, as the legendary Jamaican hangs up his running spikes after almost a decade of unparalleled success.
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The 30-year-old first announced his decision to retire from athletics in February 2015, and initially planned to end his career at the Rio Olympics, where he won three gold medals.
But in the end, Bolt decided that he wanted his last race to be in London.
“My sponsor has asked me to go on for another year; to 2017 and London,” he said last year.
“But I'll be doing one event, the 100m. I've already discussed it with my coach. I can concentrate on that, and on retiring on a winning note.”
When will Bolt be running?
The men’s 100m semi-finals begin at 7.05pm on Saturday August 5.
The final takes place later that evening, due to begin at 9.45pm.
But wait! That won’t actually be his final race. He will also take place in the 4x100m relay, next Saturday.
Follow live coverage of tonight's 100m final below:
More information:
Where can I watch it?
On BBC One. Covering of the evening session begins at 6.30pm and lasts until 10pm.
And just a heads up: BBC One will also be screening a documentary all about the big man, called I Am Bolt, which starts at 2pm on Saturday afternoon.
What are the odds?
Bolt is the overwhelming favourite to win the 100m final. Surprise, surprise.
The current odds are:
Bolt to win: 1/3
Christian Coleman to win: 4/1
Noah Lyles to win: 8/1
And what happened in the heats?
Our man Samuel Lovett was there and had this to say:
Michael Johnson had said ahead of the 2017 World Athletics Championships that Usain Bolt was “more vulnerable” than ever as he bids to retain his title as ‘the fastest man on earth’.
On the big occasion here at the London Stadium, the American’s words proved worryingly prescient.
Clocking in at 10.07secs in Friday's heats, Bolt booked his place in Saturday’s semi-finals but made hard work of it in the process.
Animated and playful as ever before the race, the Jamaican ended his 100m sprint with a disappointed shake of the head that said it all.
It was a far from flawless performance that saw Bolt pushed all the way by the likes of Britain's James Dasaolu and Jimmy Vicaut of France, both of whom also qualified for the semis.
Indeed, the 30-year-old struggled out of the blocks and found himself positioned sixth as the mid-way mark approached.
It took until the closing stages of the race before Bolt pulled ahead of the pack to keep his hopes of a 12th World Championships gold on course.
Speaking after the race the Jamiacan appeared to blame the blocks for his performance.
"I stumbled a bit coming out of blocks, I'm not fond of these blocks," he told the BBC. "I have to get this together. It's shaky because when I did the warm up it [the blocks] pushed back.
"It's not what I am used to."
The Jamaican may have been presented as “forever fastest” in his media conference earlier this week, but if Friday’s race is anything to go by his dominance looks to be drawing to a close.
Good evening and welcome to live coverage of tonight's 100m finals at the World Athletics Championships in London.
All eyes are fixed on eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt as he bids to retain his title as the 'fastest man on Earth' before retiring at the end of this year's Championships.
The Jamaican heads into tonight's finals on the back of a disappointing first-round heat which he described as 'very bad' after a slow start out of the blocks but remains favourite to claim gold.
We'll be providing you all the build-up to tonight's races, which also see Britain's trio of sprinters - Reece Prescod, James Dasaolu and Chijindu Ujah - in action.
Make sure to stay tuned folks!
The latest news on Bolt's 'worst blocks' complaint below. To put it simply, the IAAF aren't having any of it.
Read more here:
He's ready - but will it be gold for the 'fastest man on earth'?
And here's our report from last night's first-round heats where an off-the-pace Bolt booked his place in the 100m semi-finals with a so-so performance at the London Stadium.
Read more below:
In other news, here's the schedule for all of tonight's events at the London Stadium:
19:00 W Shot Put - Heptathlon
19:05 M 100 Metres - Semi-Final
19:26 M Discus Throw - Final
19:35 W 1500 Metres - Semi-Final
20:05 M Long Jump - Final
20:10 W 10,000 Metres - Final
21:00 W 200 Metres - Heptathlon
21:45 M 100 Metres - Final
It's been a disappointing day for Katarina Johnson-Thompson. Her World Championship medal hopes were all but dashed in the opening session of the heptathlon after an awful high jump performance at the London Stadium.
The devastated 24-year-old collapsed to the mat, head in hands, after a third failure at 1.86 metres.
It left her with a best clearance of just 1.80m from arguably her strongest event, a full 18 centimetres off her personal best.
That equated to a difference of 233 points, a huge and surely insurmountable margin for the home favourite to claw back, especially given the level of competition.
Johnson-Thompson lay in fifth place with 2,053 points after two of the seven events, with Olympic champion and gold medal favourite Nafissatou Thiam out in front on 2,215.
At the same stage of the Rio Olympics, the Briton led the Belgian by 12 points.
Around eight minutes to go until the first semi-final for tonight's 100m. Stay tuned guys!
Okay, here we go folks. We're minutes away from the first race!
Justin Gatlin is stood poised at the blocks and we're just waiting to see if he receives a similarly hostile reception as he did last night when he was fiercely booed by the London audience.
Brit watch: James Dasaolu is in action as he bids to make tonight's final. He faces tough competition in the form of Julian Forte and Gatlin.
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