Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt outsprinted fellow Jamaican Nickel Ashmeade and the US’ Justin Gatlin to win the 100m at the Zurich Diamond League meeting on Thursday.
Bolt, running into a slight headwind, made his customary sluggish start before accelerating away from the field to win in 9.90 seconds.
Ashmeade was second in 9.94, with former Olympic and world champion Gatlin two hundredths of a second further back. Gatlin finished second behind Bolt at this month’s Moscow world championships.
Another Jamaican, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who became the first woman to sweep the world 100m, 200m and 4x100m sprint titles in Moscow, won the 200m in 22.40 seconds.
Fifteen Diamond Race trophies were awarded, along with the US$40,000 first prize accompanying them, before a capacity crowd of 26,000.
The US’ world champion LaShawn Merritt defeated Grenada’s 2011 world gold medalist Kirani James in the men’s 400m to add US$40,000 to his bank balance.
Meseret Defar won the battle of the Ethiopians in the women’s 5,000m, beating compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba to the finish in 14 minutes, 32.83 seconds.
Dibaba took the 10,000m gold medal in Moscow, but opted out of the 5,000m, which Defar won with ease.
On Thursday, Dibaba took the lead with 600m to run, only to see Defar ease past her on the final bend.
Ukrainian world high jump champion Bohdan Bondarenko, who has been edging closer this season to Javier Sotomayor’s world record of 2.45m, which has stood since 1993, failed with an attempt on the Cuban’s mark after winning the event on a countback with 2.33m.
New Zealand’s world and Olympic champion Valerie Adams won the women’s shot put, which was staged in the city’s main railway station on Wednesday.
Adams set a meeting record and a year’s personal best of 20.98m.
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