-as Bolt coasts to victory in 200m
BRUSSELS, Belgium, CMC – Colossal Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt emphatically flattened his rivals again as he won the 200 metres in the fourth fastest time ever and meet record 19.57 seconds at the Brussels Golden League meeting last evening.
Bolt chopped a massive 0.22 seconds off the previous meet mark of 19.79 seconds by the American Tyson Gay, who suffered a 100-metre defeat to Jamaican Asafa Powell earlier in the meet, contested in wet conditions.
Powell clocked 9.90 seconds for a solid win over Gay, and the Caribbean secured other victories at the year’s last Golden League event through Barbadian Ryan Brathwaite and Jamaican Brigitte Foster-Hylton in the sprint hurdles. Undefeated in over a year in both sprints, the 23-year-old Bolt accentuated the fact that he is leagues ahead of the current world sprinters with another dominant run in front of a full house of 50,000 fans.
Just weeks after his world record performances over 100 and 200 metres at the Berlin World Championships, the 6-foot-5-inch giant took control early and accelerated away from the field in a now customary lopsided win.
“At 25 metres (to go) I backed off. The crowd was extremely wonderful, they gave me energy,” said Bolt who next runs in the World Athletics Final next weekend in Thessaloniki, Greece. His time was well off his world-record 19.19 seconds but that Berlin world-best, his Beijing Olympics 19.30 and Michael Johnson’s 19.32 are the only faster times on the all-time list.
American Wallace Spearmon was a well beaten second in 20.19 followed by Azerbaijan’s Ramil Guliyev (20.47) with Antiguan Pan American Games champion Brendan Christian fourth in 20.61.
Powell, who held the world 100-metre record at 9.74 seconds before Bolt smashed it (9.72) in May 2008 in New York, secured a rare win over World Championship silver medallist Gay with a fine run.
Showing the grit often missing in his major assignments, Powell impressively repelled a mid-race challenge from Gay and won handsomely.
Powell’s time was just 0.06 seconds off his season’s best 9.84 that gave him bronze in Berlin.
“This new track is really fast. Unfortunately, the rain which fell just before the race affected us,” Powell said after the win.
American Darvis Patton ran through for third in 10.08, ahead of Michael Rodgers (10.09) and a cluster of Jamaicans Steve Mullings (10.15), Michael Frater (10.17) and Lerone Clarke (10.19) who finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.
Marc Burns, of Trinidad and Tobago, was ninth in 10.25 seconds.
Powell next competes on Sunday at the Rieti Grand Prix where he ran his last world record of 9.74 in 2007.
New sprint hurdles world champions Brathwaite and Foster-Hylton secured good wins to further boost their rising stocks.
The 21-year-old Brathwaite, who won the first ever global track and field gold medal for Barbados in Berlin last month, dominated the 110-metre hurdles in 13.30 seconds.
Jamaican Dwight Thomas, who beat Brathwaite in an upset victory at the Zurich Golden League last week, placed second in 13.38 and American Joel Brown (13.39) was third. The veteran Foster-Hylton snatched a narrow win the 100-metre hurdles, edging Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep by 0.01 seconds.
The 34-year-old Foster-Hylton clocked a swift 12.48 seconds to defeat Berlin silver medallist Lopes-Schliep (12.49) and Jamaican Delloreen Ennis-London (12.71).
Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser, Kerron Stewart, Shericka Williams, and Trecia Smith, and Renny Quow, of Trinidad and Tobago, picked up other Caribbean podium finishes at the meet.
American Carmelita Jeter produced another superb run to capture the women’s 100 metres, topping the Fraser and Stewart, the gold and silver medallists respectively at the Berlin World Championship.
Jeter sped to victory in 10.88 seconds, edging Fraser (10.98) and Stewart (11.05).
Jamaica’s ex-World Champion Veronica Campbell-Brown was fourth in 11.10, followed by Bahamian veteran Chandra Sturrup (11.16), T&T’s Kelly-Ann Baptiste (11.26), Bahamian Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie (11.28) and Sherone Simpson (11.39).
Jamaica-born American Sanya Richards secured her share of the US$1 million jackpot – along with Russian Yelena Isinbayeva and Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele – with a resounding triumph that completed a sweep of all the 400-metre races in the series.
World champion Richards clocked a world-leading 48.83 seconds to flog Britain’s Christina Ohuruogu (50.43) and Williams (50.55). With one leap, Isinbayeva prevailed in the pole vault at 4.60 metres and so secured her share of the jackpot.
Bekele was the final contender to secure his claim to US$333,333.333, securing the prize in the 5,000 metres with an authoritative win in 12 minutes 55.31 seconds.
Richards, Isinbayeva and Bekele picked up the huge purse after racing unbeaten in all six Golden League events, from Berlin in June, followed by Oslo, Rome, Paris, Zurich and now Brussels.
Quow clocked 45.55 seconds for the runner-up spot in the men’s 400 behind American Jeremy Wariner (44.94).
Smith, the 2005 World Champion, posted 14.23 metres to place second in the women’s triple jump to Cuban Yamile Aldama (14.27m).
