There was the space age and the computer age; now we have the ‘Bolt Age’.

Jamaica’s triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt stunned the world on Sunday by shattering his own 100 metres world record at the 12th World Championships in Athletics and offered a bigger surprise by saying he is not yet 100 percent fit!

A mind boggling 9.58 seconds electrified the Berlin Olympic Stadium and proved that, indeed, lighting can strike twice as the Jamaican, who turns 23 this Friday, improved on the 9.69 world record he set in Beijing same time last year.

It was the biggest margin of improvement on the 100m world record. Even his rivals paid tribute to the man who has turned track and field on its head and attracted spectators back into stadiums.

“When I looked up, he was gone … and he just kept disappearing,” Britain’s sixth-place finisher Dwain Chambers said. “But I’m happy that I will go down in history and I will be able to tell my children and grandchildren that I was there when it happened.”

The conditions were perfect and the stadium pregnant with expectations, temperatures at 26 degrees Celcius, humidity of 39 per cent and winds of 0.9 metres per second when the race started at 9.44pm.

Perfect start

Bolt had a perfect start despite Trinidad’s Richard Thompson having had the fastest reaction time of 0.119 seconds to the Jamaican’s 0.146, but Bolt was already in charge after 20 metres, which he covered in 2.89 seconds. Biomechanic analysis by the German track and field federation clocked his split times as 2.89 seconds, 4.64, 6.31, 7.92 and 9.58 over the 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 metres.

And yet Bolt says he is not fit!

Bolt’s top challenger, Tyson Gay of USA, clocked a national record 9.71 for the second place while fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell was third in his season’s best 9.84.

“I have to keep on doing this year after year because I know the boys will be coming after me,” Bolt said. “I got a good start and at 50 metres I knew it was over! I’m not in the shape I was in Beijing [Olympics] because I had a car accident which slowed me down a bit but I’m happy. I just wanted to go out there and win.”

Gay conceded defeat, only saying: “To cut a long story short, I did my best … I did the best I could,” and Powell, who held the world record before Bolt at 9.77, paid tribute to his countryman. “I knew I needed a perfect race to win but I have to settle for what I got. He [Bolt] was just great.”