Usain Bolt
Bolt is stepping up his preparations for the 15th IAAF World Championships to be held in Beijing in August Getty Images

Usain Bolt will take to the track for the IAAF/BTC World Relay Championships in the Bahamas in May, the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association has now confirmed.

Six-time Olympic champion Bolt, who ran just three races throughout the 2014 season due to foot and hamstring problems respectively, has a proud history of success in relay events, winning gold in the 4x100m at Beijing in 2008 and repeating the feat four years later in London.

The 28-year-old has also tasted success over that distance three times at the World Championships in 2009, 2011 and 2013 and he was also part of the Jamaican team that set a new Commonwealth Games record with victory in Glasgow.

"I'm happy to be part of the Jamaican team for the IAAF / BTC World Relays in the Bahamas. I am fit, healthy and ready to run," Bolt, who will also participate at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York on 13 June as well as a scheduled meeting in Rio de Janeiro later this month, said in a statement.

"I hear the meet was a lot of fun last year and there was a great atmosphere. Jamaica has a long and successful tradition in relays and when we put on the national colours we always do our best to make the country proud."

JAAA general secretary Garth Gayle was clearly delighted to have Bolt back in the fold for the second edition of the two-day event, stating: "We were extremely pleased that Usain was available for selection and that the world's fastest man will be running for Jamaica. We can expect some sprint magic on the track in the Bahamas on 2 and 3 May."

Eight of the fastest recorded times in the history of the 4x100m event have been set in the last seven years, six of which have come courtesy of Jamaica.

The confident Bolt will be hoping to return to prominence in the coming months after American rival Justin Gatlin, likely to be his main competitor at the World Championships in August and also at his final Olympic Games in 2016, performed so impressively in both the 100m and 200m distances last year.

Gatlin, who was handed a four-year ban for doping in 2006, recently attracted controversy after Nike elected to offer him a new sponsorship deal.

Such a decision provoked an incredulous reaction from several high-profile athletes, including Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe.

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