Headlines
Bolt beats Gatlin to win 100m gold at Athletics Worlds
Beijing, Aug 23
Jamaican Usain Bolt, whose
appearance in Beijing was in doubt barely months before the World
Athletics Championships, stormed to defend his 100 metres title in 9.79
seconds on Sunday at the iconic Bird's Nest stadium where he turned into
an athletics phenomenon seven years ago.
Although the time was a
far cry from his 9.58 seconds world record as injury in the past two
years took a toll on the multi-world and Olympic champion, the capacity
stadium gave the 29-year-old a standing ovation for the Jamaican who
hogged the limelight in the 2008 Olympics with two world-record wins in
the 100 metres and 200 metres as well as a gold medal from the 4x100
metres, reports Xinhua.
China's Su Bingtian created history for
the host country when he became the first Chinese to run the blue-ribbon
sprint event final at the outdoor world championships.
Former
world and Olympic champion Justin Gatlin came here with this year's
leading time of 9.74 seconds but had to settle for the silver in 9.80
seconds.
Bolt's participation in Beijing looked in doubt until
two 9.87-second runs at a cold and rainy IAAF Diamond League meeting in
London on July 25.
His title run also had seemed a hard one as
33-year-old in-form Gatlin has been in a brilliant form, not yet losing
once since the 2013 Worlds, winning all 22 races.
"That still was
not the best. I still stumbled. I came out here, relaxed, no stress and
brought it home," said Bolt who covered his face with both hands and
faked playing "hide and seek" before the camera right before the start.
"My
aim is to be the number one until I retire. And therefore I am pushing
myself and pushing myself. It is all about running the race and getting
it done. You can call that race rusty. I could have run faster," the
29-year-old added.
Trayvon Bromell of the US and Andre de Grasse from Canada tied for the third in 9.92 seconds.
Su
managed to enter the final after a dramatic semi-final where three
athletes all clocked 9.99 seconds and all of them qualified to make it a
rare nine-man final. It is also the first time in world championships
history that a sub-10 second time has been required to reach the final.
Sunday saw four other gold medals find their owners.
In
the men's hammer throw, Poland's Pawel Fajdek won with a throw of 80.88
metres. Dilshod Nazarov from Tajikistan took silver and Poland's
Wojciech Nowicki had bronze, both posting 78.55 meters.
Joe
Kovacs of the US won the men's shot put in 21.93 metres and German David
Storl took the silver medal in 21.74 metres. Jamaican O'Dayne Richards
created a 21.69 metres national record to bag the bronze medal.
Olympic
champion Jessica Ennis-Hill came back after the birth of son Reggie
last summer to win her second world heptathlon title after fellow Briton
Katarina Johnson-Thompson failed to score in the long jump.
Ennis-Hill
garnered 6,669 points, beating into second place Canada's Brianne
Theisen Eaton, who had 6,554 points. Latvia's Laura Ikauniece-Admidina
finished third with 6,516 points.
In the morning session, Moscow
Worlds bronze medallist Miguel Angel Lopez dashed China's hope to win
their first men's 20km race walking title when the Spaniard seized the
victory in one hour 19 minutes and 14 seconds.
"The bronze medal
in Moscow was important. I have been working very hard. I had strong
rivals from China and Japan," said the 27-year-old.
China pinned
high hopes on this event where 2012 London Olympic winner Chen Ding,
London bronze medalist Wang Zhen and fourth-place finisher Cai Zelin
joined force.
Wang, receiving two warnings, crossed the finish
line 15 seconds behind Lopez. Chen had a disappointing ninth finish in
1:21.39 hour while Cai was fifth in 1:20.42 hour. Canadian Benjamin
Thorne came third in 1:19.57 hour to set a national record.
Title
favorite Yusuke Suzuki of Japan, who smashed the world record at the
Asian Championships in March in 1:16:36 hour, withdrew mid-way.