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19th Aug 2016

Zac Efron’s fan footage of Usain Bolt’s blistering 200m run is better than the BBC’s

It brings home just how fast the Jamaican really is

Ben Kenyon

Sport on TV is incredible these days – everything’s in glorious HD and they’ve got super slow motion replays of the action from every conceivable angle.

But watching sport’s greatest moments through your shiny TV screen somehow makes the spectacle less real or relatable and the even the achievement itself can appear slightly less human.

There is no substitute for being right there in the action. But fan footage gives us an incredible window into these historic sporting moments that are far more real than any TV camera can portray.

Usain Bolt winning a historic eight Olympic gold medal in Rio on Thursday night was one of those moments.

The 29-year-old sprinter blew everyone away in the rain to emphatically win the 200m final.

The Jamaican’s blistering run was obviously captured by the world’s TV cameras as he made everyone else look like amateurs without even getting near a world record pace.

But Hollywood actor Zac Efron, who is out in Rio supporting Team USA, was in the Olympic Stadium to see Bolt’s 200m race.

Luckily for us he captured the action from his ringside seat in the stands. No high tech cameras, no sweeping camera angles, no hyperbolic commentary – just fans absolutely losing their minds as the World’s Fastest Man did his thing.

It’s far more real than anything you’ll see on TV…

Efron, who stars in the new Baywatch film alongside The Rock, actually flew out to Rio to meet a Team USA gymnast who won four gold medals.

Nineteen-year-old Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in US history with her incredible medal haul – but when Efron heard she was a fan, he jumped on a plane to go and meet her in person.

“Their story just blew my mind,” Efron said on the Today Show on Wednesday. “When I found out Simone and the team were fans, I was like, ‘What kind of a guy am I if I don’t show up?’”

So he did.

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