Catching up with Usain Bolt

by Dermot Davitt |

The Moodie Report and our friends at Delaware North Companies last weekend managed where the world’s top sprinters have so often failed: we caught up with Usain Bolt, Olympic 100-metre champion and the world’s fastest man.

On Sunday, The Moodie Report was a guest of Delaware North’s UK division at Wembley Stadium for the Community Shield football season curtain raiser between Manchester United and Chelsea (won 3-1 by United).

Delaware North operates all of the catering and hospitality at Wembley, as well as at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium and at Pride Park, home of Derby County. The ambitious concessionaire is also breaking into the UK airport market, striking key food & beverage deals at London Heathrow (where it manages the acclaimed Dining Street concept), as well as Gatwick and Edinburgh airports over the past year.

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On Sunday, after a terrific afternoon of sumptuous food and drink and a highly entertaining game, we were exiting the Delaware North hospitality box just as Usain (a renowned Manchester United fan) and his substantial entourage were leaving their box just a couple of doors along.

Before he’d had a chance to get out of the starting blocks and down the corridor, Mia Manson-Bishop, Delaware North’s charming Business Development and Marketing Director, showed a remarkable turn of foot to track down the champion – a turn of foot honed, we understand, by years of training on the high veldt in her native South Africa.

Usain was Caribbean coolness personified in his trademark ‘Usain Bolt’ branded jacket, sunglasses perched backwards on his neck, headphones (the de rigueur accessory for today’s top sports stars) and, of course his radiant smile, as he posed for the photo above with Mia.

That photo now takes pride of place on Mia’s Facebook page, she tells us, where it’s the envy of her many friends. Little wonder: it’s not often you get to meet a true global superstar, and Usain Bolt undoubtedly is one.