Jamaican athletics superstar Usain Bolt ran a track record 9.85 seconds in the 100m at an IAAF World Challenge meeting in Croatia on Tuesday, smashing longstanding American rival Tyson Gay’s mark of 9.92 seconds set last year.
The 25-year-old Olympic titleholder — who lost his world crown last month after being disqualified for a false start — eased away to win in what was for him also a season’s best time, though a fair bit off his world record of 9.58 seconds.
Thirty-five-year-old Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis, the 2003 world champion and bronze medalist at the worlds last month, finished second, while Trinidad and Tobago’s Richard Thompson was third.
Photo: EPA
Collins clocked 10.01 seconds, while Thompson finished in 10.03 seconds.
Bolt, who nevertheless retained his world 200m crown and also anchored the Jamaican team to a world record in the 4x100m relay, said that he was not satisfied with his run overall because of a problem that has been dogging him all season.
BAD START
“I had a bad start, that’s the reason why I had lost concentration, a little bit. It was already happening to me this year, but I felt wonderful here,” Bolt said.
“I remember my last meeting here, in Zagreb [in 2006]. Then and tonight again, I had great support from the spectators,” he said.
Cuba’s Olympic champion Dayron Robles won the 110m hurdles in 13.00 seconds, which was also his season’s best.
World champion Jason Richardson of the US was second in 13.04 seconds.
“I did not expect such a good result,” said the Cuban, whose disqualification after winning the 110m hurdles final last month saw Richardson promoted to gold.
“While I was warming up, I felt tiredness, a muscle contraction, but at the stadium I felt excellent and if there were not these minor problems, maybe I would have run even better,” Richardson said.
In the women’s high jump, world champion Anna Chicherova did not allow Croatian darling, injury-hit Blanka Vlasic, to avenge her world championship defeat. They both jumped over 2m, but the Russian had less attempts. Ebba Jungmark of Sweden was third with 1.94m.
“I decided to attack 2.04 meters, but it turned out that I don’t have the speed for such a height. The problem is that my left leg is weaker than the right and I felt pain since warming up,” Vlasic told journalists.
“However, I cannot regret the defeat since the audience saw jumps over two meters which was not often this season. This season really tired me, there were injuries ... so I have to be happy that in such a condition I jumped over two meters in Zagreb,” she said.
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