Double sprint world-record holder Usain Bolt can improve his stunning new times by a wide margin, Italy's former 200m record holder Pietro Mennea believes.
''I think Bolt can get down to 9.5 seconds in the 100m and 19.2 in the 200m,'' Mennea told ANSA Wednesday after watching the Jamaican take his second Olympic gold in Mennea's old event in Beijing.
Bolt ran the 200m in 19.3 seconds, shaving 0.02 seconds off American legend Michael Johnson's 12-year-old mark of 19.32.
On Saturday he was arguably even more impressive in taking the 100m gold despite easing up and even slapping his chest as he crossed the line.
His mark of 9.69 seconds took 0.03 seconds off his own record set in New York in May.
Many experts think Bolt can knock chunks off his marks if he improves his training methods.
But none of them has gone as far as Mennea's predictions.
The Italian, whose 1979 200m record of 19.72 seconds held for 17 years until Johnson's legendary race at the 1996 Olympics, told ANSA:
''From now on he'll only be running against himself.
''He won't have rivals for years, and only he can attack these records.
''He must set himself ambitious targets - and he can hit them''.
