Dalian bus driver accepts Usain Bolt race challenge
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 18 December, 2013, 12:24pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 18 December, 2013, 1:26pm
Amy Li [email protected]
Usain Bolt after beating a bus in a race in the "9 de Julio" Avenue, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Sunday. Photo: Xinhua
A female bus driver in China's northeastern Dalian city has accepted a challenge from Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, who in a recent Weibo post dared Chinese bus drivers to race against him.
"Are there any Chinese buses want to race against me?" the victorious Jamaican said on Chinese social media after beating a Buenos Aires bus in an 80-metre race on Sunday.
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Bolt's message, which was published on Monday, elicited thousands of responses from enthusiastic Chinese fans, before bus drivers from all over the country chimed in with their own ideas of a competition with the eight-time world champion.
Weibo screenshot of Wang Ying, a bus driver in Dalian, who says she would be willing to race with Bolt
The first to officially take up Bolt on his challenge, Wang Ying, a public bus driver in Dalian with 15 years’ experience, said she was confident she would beat the champion sprinter in a 300-metre race.
Wang said that given the time it takes for a bus to accelerate up to its full speed, it would be unlikely for her to beat Bolt in a 100-metre race. Though the chance of this increases slightly for a 200-metre race, she was "certain" she would beat Bolt in a 300-metre race.
In an interview with Dalian's Bandao Morning News, Wang, who now operates an automatic bus, said she had in the past driven a manual transmission passenger bus.
While Bolt hasn't responded to Wang's offer, it was warmly received by her fellow Chinese citizens, who said they would look forward to such a race.
Zhang Peiming, a famous Chinese track and field sprinter, threw his support behind Wang and said he believed she "would have no problem in winning a 200-metre race."
