Usain Bolt won the 100m at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting on Tuesday although he just failed to improve on the time he set in his first race of the season in the Diamond League last week.
The Jamaican world record holder and Olympic champion again seemed a little slow off the blocks, but Bolt recovered as he did in Rome to finish in the same time of 9.91 seconds.
However, he was content with his overall performance in front of a capacity crowd of 18,000, who witnessed a string of Jamaican successes on a dry night.
Photo: AFP
“It’s good, I felt much better in this race [than last week]. I was [hoping for] a faster time, but I am happy,” Bolt said. “Execution was better, I think. I’ve got to keep winning and I’ve got to stay injury-free.”
Fellow Jamaican Steve Mullings, who has a world leading 9.89 seconds this year, finished in second place in 9.97 seconds.
Bolt, a three-time gold medalist at both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 world championships in Berlin, holds the world record of 9.58 seconds set in Germany in 2009.
Photo: Reuters
Cuba’s Dayron Robles took his favorite sixth lane and won the 110m hurdles in 13.14 seconds, but fell short of his shared leading time this year of 13.07 seconds and his world record of 12.87 seconds set in Ostrava three years ago.
“I am not very happy, I had run faster here before. I felt very tired,” he said.
Another Jamaican, Veronica Campbell-Brown, won the women’s 100m with a world leading time of 10.76 seconds.
Photo: AFP
“I think the track here is very fast, so I am happy I was invited here,” she said.
Their compatriots Marvin Anderson and Jermaine Gonzales won the men’s 200m and 400m respectively.
Gonzales won the 400m in 45.07 seconds, although the focus was largely on South Africa’s Oscar Pistorius, who famously competes in able-bodied events despite having lost both his legs.
Pistorius, nicknamed “Blade Runner” because of his prosthetic blades, was sixth in 46.19 seconds, not good enough to fulfill his aim of qualifying for this year’s world championships.
“I am not happy with the time, the last 100m was extremely difficult, but we have the whole season to work with ... the support was phenomenal,” Pistorius said.
Marvin Anderson led a Jamaican clean sweep in the 200m by winning in 20.27 seconds, ahead of Yohan Blake and Mario Forsythe.
Australia’s Jeff Riseley won the 1,000m in a world leading time of 2 minutes, 16.75 seconds.
L.J. van Zyl of South Africa won the 400m hurdles, his third victory in a row, and matched his world leading time of 47.66 seconds from February.
Ivan Ukhov of Russia won the high jump with a 2.32m clearance.
Kenyan Paul Kipsiele Koech was way ahead on his own in the second half of the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, which he won in 8 minutes, 2.55 seconds, behind the world leading time of 8 minutes, 2.28 seconds.
Francena McCoroy of the US took the women’s 400m in a winning time of 50.64 seconds.
Russia’s Mariya Abakumova won the javelin, beating Czech world record holder Barbora Spotakova with a 65.81m final attempt.
Ethiopia’s Meselech Melkamu claimed the women’s 10km title in 31 minutes, 14.83 seconds.
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