Ostrava, Czech Republic — Double World record holder Usain Bolt won the men’s 100m dash, but his time was less than impressive at the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting on Friday (May 25).
The Jamaican who leads the world with time of 9.82 seconds, fell asleep in the blocks and had to play catch-up in the latter parts of the race. In the end he stopped the clock at 10.04 seconds (-0.8 m/s) headwind, much to his own disappointments.
“I’m not happy with that time, but happy to get the win,” Bolt said after his victory.
Bolt had spoken about his intentions of running in the 9.7s, but after the poor start his only focus was truly on not losing.
Kim Collins from St. Kitts and Nevis was second, with American Darvis Patton taking third in 10.22.
Veronica Campbell-Brown flashed off the corner and then opened up a big lead to take the women’s 200m in new seasonal best of 22.38 (-0.3 m/s) in a slight headwind.
The Olympic five time medallist and reigning 200m champion, however, missed the targeted meeting record of 22.07, but finished with the third quickest in the world this season.
American Bianca Knight was second in 22.85, with another USA athlete, Tiffany Townsend, third in 23.18.
USA’s Wallace Spearmon won the men’s 200m in 20.14secs.
Kenyan sensation Pamela Jelimo showed why she will be hard to beat when she defends her Olympic title in London, later this summer, following another dominant performance to win the women’s 800m.
The World Indoor champion got away from the field at her regular 500m mark and raced home unchallenged to win in 1:58.49.
South African Caster Semenya was a distant second in 2:00.80, with Ethiopian rising star Fantu Magiso taking third in 2:01.03.
Dexter Faulk ran a fast second half of his race to win the men’s 110m hurdles, on his way to equalling his personal best of 13.13secs.
Great Britain’s Tiffany Porter signalled her Olympic gold medal intentions with 12.65 second winning performance in the women’s 100m hurdles.
Second place went to Canada’s Priscilla Lopes-Schliep in 12.80, with American Lolo Jones taking third in 12.94.
Sanya Richards-Ross timed her run very well to win the women’s 400m in 50.65, beating Briton’s Christine Ohuruogu, who ran 51.19 and Jamaica’s Patricia Hall (51.75).
American LaShawn Merritt won the men’s race in 45.13.
In other results, Renaud Lavillenie of France cleared a world-leading 5.90m to win the men’s Pole Vault, while Dylan Armstrong (21.29m) of Canada beat Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski (21.01m) of Poland to win the men’s Shot Put.
