Olympics-Athletics-Trinidad's Thompson hails "phenomenal" Bolt

By Lindsay Beck

BEIJING, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Trinidad's Richard Thompson said he was proud to have finished second in the Olympic 100 metres on Saturday but that he knew during the race he could not match the "phenomenal" Usain Bolt.

Thompson took the silver in a personal best time of 9.89 seconds but was way behind Jamaican Bolt, who won the blue riband event in lightning style and smashed his own world record in 9.69.

He said he felt it was a "great accomplishment" to have finished second to Bolt.

"Usain Bolt is a phenomenal athlete. It was only a matter of time before he began producing times like he's producing now," Thompson told reporters.

"I had a pretty good start. I thought I was with Usain up to about 15 metres and I just felt him pulling away after that.

"I just tried to stay relaxed. I felt myself pulling away from the rest and I could see him slowing down and I'm still pumping to the line."

Thompson, a 23-year-old student at Louisiana State University, said he was still pleased to have booked a place on the medals podium.

"It definitely shows that, you know, a lot of people make predictions and they have a certain list of people as to who are going to be the medallists," said Thompson.

"But you know I always say once you get on the line in the final, anything is possible then."

(Additional reporting by John Chalmers, editing by Ralph Gowling) (For more stories visit our multimedia website "2008 Summer Olympics" here; and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)