Usain Bolt ends glittering Olympic career with sprint's first ever 'triple triple'

Usain Bolt put the seal on his glittering Olympic career Friday with a blistering 4x100m victory that clinched sprint's first ever 'triple triple'.

The "triple-triple": winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay titles at three consecutive #OlympicGames. pic.twitter.com/3sPkEkybO1

— Rio 2016 (@Rio2016_en) August 20, 2016

Victory wasn't guaranteed when Bolt took the baton for the anchor leg but he powered down the straight to cross in 37.27sec before soaking up the acclaim from an adoring crowd.

With his unprecedented third straight 100m, 200m and 4x100m clean sweep, Bolt joins Carl Lewis and Paavo Nurmi on nine Olympic gold medals.

Bolt had said winning three golds in Rio would make him "immortal" and it is likely that athletics will miss its greatest showman, who is set to retire next year.

"The man is a genius," world athletics chief Sebastian Coe told AFP earlier. "There's been nobody since Muhammad Ali who's got remotely near to what this guy has done in terms of grabbing the public imagination."

Bolt's heroics come in an Olympics which had already set the seal on swimmer Michael Phelps' record-breaking Games career.

Jamaica's women missed out on a sweep in the sprint events when they were beaten by the United States -- who successfully appealed against a disqualification on Saturday -- in the 4x100m relay.

Greece's Ekaterini Stefanidi won the women's pole vault Friday after virus-stricken defending champion Jenn Suhr crashed out.

And Kenyan former world champion Vivian Cheruiyot reeled in 10,000m champion Almaz Ayana of Ethiopia to win the women's 5,000m title. — Agence France Presse