Bolt attends “Race Against Malaria” in Oslo

It wasn’t quite like the Justin Bieber-hype Oslo experienced last Wednesday but there was some hype for sure the moment Usain Bolt climbed out of his black van at point 17:50 at Karl Johans Gaten. His tight schedule before the Bislett Games allowed just a short stop at this years edition of the “Race Against Malaria” but the fastest man alive made sure he made the most out of it – for the charity runners and for the hundreds of spectators waiting along Karl Johans Gate.

88 runners in eleven relays competed in the 200m charity run, close to 100.000 collected Dollars will support the world wide fight against Malaria. A cause Bolt was just too willing to support. “We do have trouble with Malaria in the Caribbean as well so for me it is a key thing to help wherever I can. I am a fortunate person so I want to give back as much as possible”, Bolt said in front of the excited crowd in Oslo.

Together with Norwegian hurdler Christina Vukicevic Bolt gave the start signal for the race and awarded the lucky winners from DNB. But it wasn’t just that formal show that excited the crowd, it was Bolt’s down-to-earth persona. When the last runner of Team Puma (Bolts main outfitter) fought for the second-to-last-place Bolt couldn’t help but cheering for him – excited, enthusiastic … and almost ecstatic.

Although at the “Race Against Malaria” it was more about the cause than about winning, Bolt’s focus soon returned to the winning part of running: “It’s gonna be an exciting race on Thursday, I am really looking forward to it. Powell really wants to come back badly after Rome so this is going to be fun!”