Bolt: I felt like I had retired

The Jamaican megastar suffered a serious hamstring injury in March, which lead to him requiring surgery. As a result, he missed nine weeks of training.

While Bolt returned to the Commonwealth Games in July, he only ran in the 4x100m rely, where he and his fellow countrymen set a Games Record of 37.58.

However, Justin Gatlin stole the headlines in September, winning the 100m at the IAAF Diamond League final with a personal best of 9.77. The American went on to win the 200m in 19.71, the second fastest time of the year behind Gatlin’s own performance in Monaco earlier in the season.

“I felt like I’d retired, the way people were talking about Justin Gatlin,” quipped Bolt at the launch of Puma’s Ignite line of shoes on Tuesday.

“I found it to be funny. Like wow, I’m one season out and it’s like I retired. Justin Gatlin did well, he kept the sport exciting. He kept people wanting to see us compete. For me it’s OK, and I’m always looking forward to competition.”

Bolt also revealed his goal for the latter half of his career, which is to become the first man to break 19 second in the 200m. He currently holds the World Record at 19.19.

“One of my biggest goals is to go sub-19,” added the 28-year-old.

“That’s one thing I want to accomplish before I retire so I’m pushing myself. I’m working hard and we’ll see what happens.”

Bolt has already stamped his names as one of the greatest athletes in the annuls of history after winning gold in the 100m, 200m, and 4x100m at the Beijing and London Olympic Games, setting world records in all three disciplines along the way.

When Bolt arrives in Rio next year, he will be aiming for an unthinkable triple Olympic triple.

“Just adding to my accolades,” continued the six time Olympic gold medallist.

“That’s the key thing. You can only keep making yourself greater by adding great moments.”

Bolt also revealed that he will hang up his spikes in 2017 after the World Athletics Championships in London.

“They convinced me to go one more year but they won’t convince me to do any more…definitely in 2017 I’ll stop,” said a smiling Bolt.