Usain Bolt came to Rio to win three gold medals. Only the fallibility of his relay teammates will stop him achieving his goal after the Jamaican superstar won the 200m, his second sprint gold of the Olympics.

Bolt also came here greedily wanting to break his own 200m record. Such is Bolt he has to defeat himself to get satisfaction.

The weather more than Bolt defeated him. On a balmy night in Brazil the rain fell and the wind kicked up shortly before his race. It made the idea of a broken record either unattainable or all the more glorious.

Bolt won in 19.78s, ahead of Canadian Andre de Grasse in 20.02s, with veteran Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre winning bronze in 20.12s in a photo finish with Briton Adam Gemili. The bronze was decided by thousandths of a second.

"I don't need to prove anything else. What else can I do to prove to the world I am the greatest?" Bolt told reporters.

"I am trying to be one of the greatest. Be among (Muhammad) Ali and Pele. I hope to be in that bracket after these Games."

Bolt had etched himself into history as a sprinter of the ages prior to these games. Rio was only ever about enhancing his status. 

Bolt had this race won before he walked on the track. The imperious laughing sprinter who joyously mocks the field as he canters to the line, had laid down his mark in the semi-finals. He trotted to the line and waited long enough to giggle and toy with De Grasse that he might let him beat him.

It wasn't all about making it a lark, as much as letting the field know how effortless this was.

This was the race Bolt cares most about for he figures it his best distance, which is an honest self-appraisal but also galling for those who toil along looking at his backside in the 100m.

Unlike the 100m this was not a hyperbolic good-bad, dirty-clean pitched battle with Justin Gatlin. Bolt had ended that contest in the 100m, and Gatlin had halted any discussion in the 200m when he was eliminated in the semi-finals.

This contest needed no such extraneous concerns, it was only about Bolt. It seems it's only ever been about Bolt, but after Rio what next? There is no Bolt, yet there will only ever be Bolt.

Gemili was heartbroken. 

"I put so much into that run but lost my form at the end. I'm absolutely gutted," the Briton said.

"To miss an Olympic medal with the same time - it's gutting. But it's good that there were four Europeans in the final."

(Sydney Morning Herald)