Usain Bolt considered it his worst race of the season, yet he still won the 100 metres at the Weltklasse Diamond League meeting in 9.90 seconds.
The world and Olympic champion had the slowest reaction out of the starting blocks, and was led deep into the race Thursday by fellow Jamaican Nickel Ashmeade.
Bolt got down to work and muscled through the slight headwind to hit the front at the 85-metre mark. Ashmeade clocked 9.94 for second place, and Justin Gatlin of the United States was third in 9.96. “That was the worst race of the season,” said Bolt, who timed 9.95 when losing to Gatlin in Rome in June. “The longer the season goes, the worse my style gets. This race, it was really hard. I was a little sore. It’s time to get home now.”
With a parade of new world champions in action, the sold-out Zurich stadium fell silent to watch Ukrainian high jumper Bohdan Bondarenko’s latest attempt to break the 20-year-old world record of 2.45 metres set by Javier Sotomayor of Cuba.
But Bondarenko crashed through the bar at 2.46. He’d earlier won the event with a clearance at 2.33.
In a stirring women’s 5,000 metres duel between Ethiopian greats, Meseret Defar surged past Tirunesh Dibaba in the final straight.
Still, Bolt was the main attraction as usual and put on a typical pre-race act for the crowd, taking centre stage seconds after Bondarenko’s record attempt.