Johnson, at 6-1, had a considerably shorter stride but such quick turnover his feet spent little time on the track relative to other sprinters. Each additional fraction of a second of contact with the track slows the runner.

For Bolt to turn those qualities into a 200 world record will require a favorable wind (Johnson had a 1.7 mph tail wind) and some help from the four runners to his right in the staggered start. Bolt drew lane five on a track where the runners are using lanes two through nine.

Johnson was in lane three for his record run, with silver medalist Frankie Fredericks (19.68) in five and bronze medalist Ato Boldon (19.80) of Trinidad & Tobago in six. Fredericks and Boldon also were 100 medalists in 1996, meaning they had front-end speed.

'You have to have somebody to go and catch coming off the first turn," said Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis. "He needs a good rabbit."

It won't be Collins, who will be in lane one. Wallace Spearmon, in lane nine, is a notoriously slow starter. Two 100-meter finalists, fourth-placer Churandy Martina of the Netherlands Antilles and bronze medalist Walter Dix of the United States, are in seven and eight for the 200.

To Collins, a Bolt victory is far from a foregone conclusion.

"You never know who is going to challenge the Big Man and make him break," Collins said. "We're all humans, and at some time we can break."

Bolt seems more than that, a man headed for Olympic immortality at 21.

"He has it in his legs," said Marie-Jose Perec of France, Olympic 200 champion in 1996. "He is a force of nature, a one-in-a-million runner."