Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt stormed to victory in the men’s 200m at the Diamond League meeting on Friday, easing up well before the line to time 20.03 seconds.
Bolt, in just his second 200m of the season after setting a world lead of 19.86 seconds in Oslo last month, masterfully negotiated the curve before opening up down the home stretch to put a distance between himself and the field.
“It was windy out there and I got cold in the delay,” Bolt said in reference to a breakdown to the starters’ equipment that lasted several minutes.
“In the straight my legs didn’t feel good, but I got through injury free.”
Running in lane six, the 24-year-old had training partner and compatriot Mario Forsythe outside him and French upstart Christophe Lemaitre on the inside.
In the perfect warm-up for the August 27 to September 4 world championships in Daegu, South Korea, the double sprint world and Olympic champion (and world record holder in both the 100 and 200m), could put on the brakes well before hitting the line.
His time, should he have carried on at full pelt, would surely have bettered the meet record of 20.01 set by American track legend Michael Johnson in 1990.
Triple European champion Lemaitre was dragged along in second in a season’s best of 20.21, with American veteran Darvis Patton taking third in 20.59.
Another US veteran Shawn Crawford, who won 200m gold at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and silver in Beijing four years later, finished seventh in 22.17.
Bolt, brazenly sporting a blue singlet with a picture of himself celebrating victory on it, did his best to calm the excited crowd before the race, television cameras picking him out with his finger to his lips.
And when the starters’ equipment went haywire and with only Jaroslav Baba continuing solo in the men’s high jump, pumping music was played to appease the expectant 49 174 fans at the Stade de France, who were not disappointed. – AFP