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Usain Bolt unveils Jamaica's Olympics kit

London 2012 kit will inspire me to run faster still, says world record holder, hours after recording quickest 100m in three years

Usain Bolt and Cadella Marley launch the Jamaican Olympics kit. Photograph: Alex Morton/Action Images

For the fastest man in the world, he's not the most punctual. But fresh from running his quickest time this year in Rome, Usain Bolt could be forgiven for turning up late to moonlight as a catwalk model and unveil Jamaica's London 2012 kit.

Bolt, who exuded his trademark cool as he acted as a clotheshorse for a kit designed by Bob Marley's daughter, also revealed that his secret dietary weapon in 2012 would not be fast food but Jamaican patties and jerk chicken.

After breaking the 100m record in Beijing, Bolt put his success down to McDonalds chicken nuggets in what amounted to a marketing coup for the fast food giant.

"The good thing about being in London is that there's going to be a lot of Jamaican food, so the only thing I have to worry about is putting on weight. There will be no chicken nuggets this year," he said.

After emerging from a cloud of dry ice to a booming reggae soundtrack at the end of the fashion show, he said London would be a "home from home". "This is pretty much the home court advantage for me. I'm really looking forward to competing here. I know all the Jamaicans living here are really looking forward to it. I just want to put on a show,"

Bolt ran 9.76 seconds in Rome, but said that it was "still early in the season" and implied he was just getting going. Can you go faster, he was asked. "Definitely," came the reply.

Cedella Marley said the military jackets and fit of the collection had been based on her father's style and the blurring of the lines between sport and music in Jamaican culture – although she admitted he preferred the World Cup to the Olympics. Marley's face features on the shoulder of some of the track jackets. "A little piece of him is going to be in London," she said.

The colours – green, yellow and black – may have been predictable but some of the detail, including the blurred images of two 1948 Jamaican track stars on the vest, were not. Bolt said the kit would inspire him to run faster still: "She's a great designer but also carries on the spirit of our nation through the legacy of the Marley family. It's going to be inspirational to run in London with that energy surrounding me."

Marley will be going up against the daughter of another musician in London, with Puma's Jamaica kit lining up alongside Team GB athletes wearing the Adidas kit designed by Stella McCartney.

The three way battle for marketing dominance between Puma, Nike and Adidas – which spent £40m sponsoring the Games and supplied the Team GB kit – will be one of the most watched sideshows to the main action.

The hoopla around the Puma kit launch reflects the extent to which the country has become one of the most marketable in world sport off the back of the success of Bolt and his Jamaican sprinting rivals.

Michael Fennell, president of the Jamaican Olympic Association, said the attention on the country's track and field stars had boosted the country's image and brought spin off benefits. One of those benefits showed itself when Bolt discovered how to beat Heathrow's immigration queues. "Once they recognised me, they moved me to the front," he revealed.

Source: guardian.co.uk

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