Inside the tiny parish school and humble family home of Olympic legend Usain Bolt

HE’S the fastest man in the history of the world – and, unbelievably, he thinks he can run even faster.

Usain Bolt smashed his own 100m world record on Sunday with a breathtaking, heartstopping 9.58secs.

And despite experts saying man’s limit in the near future is 9.51secs, the 29-year-old speed merchant said coolly: “I think I will stop at 9.4 — but you never know.”

His amazing effort is the third time he has broken the 100m world record in little over a year — and he holds the 200m record too.

Usain's long dash for the tape all started on a dusty street where goats wander loose between ramshackle wooden buildings in the rural backwater of Sherwood Content in Jamaica.

It nestles in the Trelawny hills to the north of the island.

Usain St Leo Bolt was born on August 21, 1986, and grew up with brother Sadeeki and sister Sherine in the village where parents Wellesley and Jennifer ran the grocery store.

Even in those days it was all about track and field — the potholed track to Waldensia Primary and All-Age School where Usain was a pupil, and the fields that are still the lifeblood of the farming community.

The staple crop of yams gave the star his lightning speed, according to his dad.

Asked by the world's media the secret behind his son's record-shattering 100m and 200m triumphs in the Beijing Olympics this time last year, Wellesley Bolt said: "It is definitely the Trelawny yam."

But when his boy was a manic nine-year-old, Wellesley had a different explanation, according to Usain's aunt Lillian.

She told Jamaica's The Gleaner newspaper: "He used to have too much energy.

"His daddy said something must be wrong with him.

"He said he must have quicksilver in his head or something.

"But the doctor told him there was nothing wrong with the boy.

"After he started running, he settled down."

By the age of 12 he was the fastest runner at his school — but the sports-mad youngster was more into football and cricket.

His boyhood heroes were Manchester United and cricket legends Waqar Younis of Pakistan, India's Sachin Tendulkar, Aussie Matthew Hayden and fellow Jamaican and West Indies captain Chris Gayle.

Usain was a very promising fast bowler himself.

When he moved up to William Knibb Memorial High School, his cricket coach noticed his amazing speed and urged him to try track and field events.

He won his first annual high school championship medal in 2001, taking silver in the 200m, at the age of 14.

And by 15 he had already reached his full height of 6ft 5in and was towering over his schoolboy rivals.

As his performances on the track brought him to the attention of Jamaican bigwigs, he was moved to Kingston to train with other top athletes at the University of Technology.

At the 2002 World Junior Championships he was still 15 and became the youngest-ever gold medallist in the competition when he won the 200m.

More medals followed but the boy from Sherwood Content struggled to take his career seriously, enjoying fast food, basketball and Kingston's club scene instead.

Injuries

His early professional career was hampered by a string of injuries which limited his success.

And he turned down several offers of scholarships to American colleges, preferring to train in Kingston.

It certainly didn't slow him down.

By 2005 he was in the world top five and in 2006 he won his first major medal, with a bronze in the 200m at the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart, Germany.

His coaches wanted him to train for the 400m but he wanted to do the 100m, so they compromised.

Usain was told he could run the 100m if he broke the Jamaican record for the 200m, which had stood for 36 years.

He did.

In 19.75 seconds.

In his first big 100m, in Crete, he won a gold medal with a then personal best time of 10.03.

That was good — but he was barely out of the starting blocks.

He was really beginning to stretch those long legs in the Beijing Olympics last year.

And now he is really motoring.

His mum and dad were in Berlin to watch him obliterate the 100m world record so easily on Sunday night.

And back in Sherwood Content, the residents huddled round the television at the village store to watch their very own Lightning Bolt strike again.