Deansgate was no real place for showboating yesterday, with the Mancunian weather living up to its miserable form. At one point in the afternoon the elevated track laid out down Manchester's main thoroughfare was in a worryingly waterlogged state.

At that stage, Usain Bolt, the great showman of the Beijing Olympics, could have done with a boat to navigate his passage along it. When the time came for the Jamaican phenomenon to get to his marks in the Great Manchester 150 Sprint, the sun had broken through and most of the surface water had been dredged. Still, as he got to his marks for the final of the exhibition 150m street sprint, the fastest man on the planet could have been excused a drop or two of trepidation, and perhaps a shiver of déjà vu.