Usain Bolt was good enough to win even if he didn’t flash his world-record breaking form in the 100m at the Festival of Excellence on Thursday.
The Olympic champion from Jamaica finished in 10.00 seconds under a dark sky and in a steady downpour at University of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium.
“It felt good,” Bolt said. “I think I should have done a little better. For me, it’s all right. I got through it injury-free, so that’s a good thing.”
PHOTO: AP
The US’ Shawn Crawford was second in 10.25, while Ivory Williams finished third in 10.28. Bernard Williams was fourth, crossing the line in 10.47.
Crawford, who won gold in the 200m at the 2004 Athens Olympics, finished second to Bolt in the 200m in Beijing. Williams won gold in the 4x100m relay at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Bolt won three golds in Beijing last year.
He said on Thursday he held back a little because of the cool and damp conditions. Temperatures were below 20˚C.
“That’s the right thing to do,” Bolt said. “You’ve got to be very careful because you have a lot of running to do and you can’t manage to get injured at this time of the season.”
Bolt’s most recent race was also in wet weather. In May, running on a temporary street track in Manchester, England, he ran the world’s fastest 150m in 14.35 seconds, breaking Canadian Donovan Bailey’s 12-year-old record of 14.99 in the seldom-run distance.
Thursday’s race was delayed by two false starts, with Jamaican Marvin Anderson disqualified on the second.
This was Bolt’s second race since a car accident in April, when he crashed his car into a ditch along a highway. Bolt required surgery on his left foot after stepping onto thorns while getting out of the wreckage.
Earlier in the meet, reigning Olympic 400m champion LaShawn Merritt cruised to victory in a time of 44.86.
The Festival of Excellence featured 50 Olympians, but Bolt was the headliner, reportedly earning more than C$250,000 (US$225,570) for his appearance in front of 5,835 fans.
The US’ Bryan Clay, gold medal winner in the decathlon in Beijing, competed in a three-event format including pole vault, 100m hurdles and the 400m. Clay won the event over Jake Arnold of the US, scoring 2,739 points.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Canadian Priscilla Lopes-Schliep, the bronze medal winner at the Beijing Olympics, narrowly beat out Canadian rival Perdita Felicien, crossing the line in 12.96 seconds.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set