ATHLETICS:THE SHOCK silenced the stadium, and for the briefest moment the bang of the starter's pistol echoed out loud in the ears of the dumbstruck crowd.

By that point Usain Bolt was several strides down the track. He had torn his top off and thrown it to the floor, and was scowling at the sky. Everyone else was confused, but he knew exactly what he had done.

In the end the 100m final of the World Championships started without any of the eight fastest men in the world this year. Two were suspended for doping, two out injured, three failed to qualify and Bolt, the most important of all, was standing on the sidelines, wracked with anger and disbelief.

Bolt did not stop to talk. Once he found a way off the track he was almost as quick to escape the stadium as he had been to leave his blocks. Someone must have collared him in the car park, because later on the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) released the briefest of quotes. “I have nothing to say right now. I need some time.”

He has five days, then he will be back on the track to try and defend his 200m title. “How will I go? It’s on Friday night? Then we’ll have to see on Friday.” And then he was off into the night.

In his wake he left thousands of disappointed fans, hundreds of clamouring journalists and one very happy man: his 21-year-old training partner, Yohan Blake, the new world champion. He won in a time of 9.92 seconds. Quick, especially into a headwind.

But not so fast that anyone believed the silver medalist from the USA, Walter Dix, when he said “it would have been about the same race,” if Bolt had been running.

Blake was in the lane outside Bolt, and he said that in the seconds that followed the disqualification he had only one thought in his mind. “Keep focused. Get the job done for Jamaica.”

Kim Collins, who at 35 became the oldest man ever to win a world championship medal in the 100m, has been around long enough to allow himself the luxury of being a little more forthcoming. “I actually thought they were going to blame it on me,” he said, chuckling as he spoke.

“Then I was looking for someone to say ‘there was a malfunction’ or maybe ‘it didn’t happen, let’s do it again’.” And his next thought, he added, was “hell, yeah!” His odds had just got a lot shorter.

Dix admitted that he shared some of those sentiments. “I really didn’t think they was going to throw Usain out because, well, it was Usain.”

Most people there were thinking exactly the same thing, apart, it seemed from the Bolt himself.

So why did it happen? It was not the noise in the stadium. Blake said it “was pretty much quiet”. Nor was it the starters, though some commentators have complained that they have been making the runners wait on the blocks too long.

Collins said: “On the circuit sometimes you get a quick gun, but at a championship the starter will always hold you because they have to be sure everyone is settled.”

In the end it seemed the blame lay with Bolt’s desire to cure the one real weakness in his technique, his slow start. He ran 10.05 seconds in the semi-finals earlier in the evening, and did not look as impressive as he had in the heats.

Blake qualified for the final in a time of 9.95 seconds, which would only have added to the pressure Bolt was feeling after a season in which he never hit top form because he has been struggling with his persistent back injury.

As much as his height and the length of his stride, the secret of Bolt’s success has always been how relaxed he is before he races. On the start line he looked just as jovial as he had in Beijing and Berlin. But perhaps this time it was an act.

He stopped to bump fists with the girl holding his kit, then pointed at the opposition on either side of him and shook his head. “It’s all about me,” he was saying.

And it was. Which was a shame, because Blake’s victory will always be a little devalued by what happened. He and Bolt train together under Glen Mills at the Racers Track Club in Kingston. The two of them are close, and even sat down together to eat a few boxes of chicken nuggets – just like Bolt did in Beijing – on Saturday night.

Blake said he would only have run faster if Bolt had been in the race, but we have to wait to see whether he really has it in him to beat his friend and mentor.

It was left to the wily Collins to give the most honest assessment of the race. “For me you really want to beat the champion. That’s how you want to make your name. If Bolt had run, these medals would have been even sweeter.”