OK, it’s not Michael Phelps territory, but Usain Bolt clinched his third gold medal and third world record from three events when Jamaica won the 4×100m relay on Friday.

Bolt teamed up with Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Asafa Powell to clock a time of 37.10 seconds and take 0.30 seconds off the 15-year-old record set by the United States at the 1993 world championships.

There was disappointment for Jamaica, however, when their women’s relay team were disqualified for messing up the second changeover between Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart.

Still, five out of six ain’t bad.

PHOTO: Usain Bolt of Jamaica (back) urges on his team mate Asafa Powell during their men’s 4 x 100m relay final of the athletics competition in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 22, 2008. REUTERS/David Gray

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt completed a breathtaking sprint double at the Beijing Games on Wednesday, breaking the 200 metres world record that many had thought unbreakable to take his second Olympic gold medal.

The contrast between this and his winning run in the 100 could hardly have been more marked, as this time he gave it everything he had to go under the old best mark, Michael Johnson’s 19.32, by two hundredths of a second.

While Bolt had ambled through the final quarter of the 100, and easily lowered the world record to 9.69, this time he was grimacing with effort as he made for the finish.

There was no one within two, three metres of him as he dipped for the line, glanced over at the clock and leapt with joy as the clock stopped at 19.31.

That was soon rounded down to 19.30 - a mark that will surely not be bettered, certainly by no one else, for a long time to come.

It completed an incredible sprint double for the world’s fastest man and cast an indelible mark on the Olympics. None of us in the 91,000 crowd at the Bird’s Nest will forget it.

What did you make of his performance? What does it mean for Jamaica?

Let us know in the comments.

PHOTO: Usain Bolt of Jamaica gestures after finishing first in his men’s 200m semi-final of the athletics competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the National Stadium August 19, 2008. REUTERS/David Gray

The great thing about sport is that the next great upset is never far away.

Some gold medals at the Games look a lot easier to predict than others, though, and if I had to put my pay cheque on one athlete to win in Beijing I would go for Yelena Isinbayeva, the remarkable Russian pole vaulter who can’t stop breaking records.

Isinbayeva cleared 5.04 metres in Monaco on Tuesday to record her 13th outdoor world record and 23rd overall.

If she is beaten in Beijing it will be astonishing, yet experience shows you can’t rule it out altogether. After all, the greatest pole vaulter of all time, Sergei Bubka won just one Olympic gold medal in Seoul in 1988 (and he very nearly missed out on that one). I also remember Jonathan Edwards having to settle for silver in 1996 after going into the Atlanta Games as the hottest of favourites.

I know of a few other pretty solid favourites, including Croatia’s world champion high jumper Blanka Vlasic and American swimmer Michael Phelps in several events, but who are the lesser known athletes almost certain to take gold? Is there a fencer, a boxer, a cyclist or a weightlifter you’d put your last penny on?

Let us know in the comments…

PHOTO: Yelena Isinbayeva reacts after breaking her own world pole vault record in Monte Carlo July 29, 2008. REUTERS/Pascal Deschamps