With Knighton following Bolt, can lightning strike twice?

The 18-year-old American is quicker over 200m than the great Jamaican was at his age. But can he stay on course and threaten the sprint world records that until recently looked untouchable?

When Usain Bolt decided that he had had his fill of life in the fast lane, his position as the greatest sprinter of all time was unassailable.

Even the mere thought that somebody someday might approach the times he had set was ludicrous — Bolt, after all, was the perfect storm, a 6’5” physical freak with both a meticulously drilled running technique and the mental ability to command his best under pressure on the biggest occasions. His world records of 9.58s in the 100m and 19.19s in the 200m appeared forever beyond the reach of athletic endeavour.

And yet, within five years of Bolt’s retirement, the possibility — even if it’s just a sliver at the moment — of at least one of his marks coming under threat has opened up. The cause for this is a teenaged American who not too long back was considering a career in gridiron.

Less than three years ago, Erriyon Knighton was a wide receiver on the American football pitch at Tampa Hillsborough High School in Florida. A hot prospect scouted by several top American colleges with reputed gridiron programmes, Knighton had a path to the NFL mapped out.

But when the pandemic hit and team sports were restricted, the youngster turned his attention to sprinting, a passion he hadn’t explored seriously until then.

"I probably would still have been playing football if I would have had that extra year,” Knighton told the BBC. “I only started running track in the ninth grade. Before then you could have asked me what 100m was and I wouldn't have known. I knew nothing about track. By the end of that year, I realised that I was kind of separated from the pack and faster than most people.”

Knighton wasn’t just “faster than most people” he was competing against; he was faster than anybody his age in history, including Bolt himself!