Bolt banishes Rome blues with classy 200m victory
Usain Bolt banished any blues he felt from losing to Justin Gatlin
over 100m last week by scorching to an impressive victory in 19.79sec in
the 200m in the Diamond League meet in Oslo Thursday.
The Jamaican sprint star raced to a Bislett Games meet record and
world lead time of 19.79 seconds to finish well ahead of a weak field
made worse when his closest rival, Dutchman Churandy Martina, was
disqualified for a false start.
Usain Bolt of Jamaica competes to win the men’s 200 m event
during the Diamond League athletics competition at the Bislett
Stadium in Oslo, on June 13, 2013. Usain
Bolt banished any blues he felt from losing to Justin Gatlin
over 100m last week by scorching to an impressive victory in
19.79sec in the 200m in the Diamond League meet in Oslo. AFP |
Bolt made sure he was well away at the second time of asking to
rebound from just his fifth defeat on the track since the 2008 Beijing
Olympics with an awesome display of power both around the bend and also
down the home stretch.
"It's a very good start for my first 200m (of the season). I'll now
go home and work on everything else. I'll aim to go even faster," said
Bolt, whose next outing will be at the Jamaican national trials ahead of
August 10-18 world championships in Moscow.
While Bolt shone, there were, however, off-days for Trinidad and
Tobago's Olympic javelin champion Keshorn Walcott and former two-time
world high jump champion Blanka Vlasic of Croatia.
Walcott's best of 77.03m saw him finish 10th and last in a
competition won by Czech Vitezslav Vesely (85.96m). Norway's two-time
former Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen was sixth with 80.99m.
Vlasic, chasing a fifth victory in her ninth appearance at the
Bislett Games, only made four attempts in the women's high jump,
succeeding just once at 1.85m for an early exit in a competition won by
Russian Svetlana Shkolina (1.97m) ahead of Sweden's Emma Green Tregaro
and world and Olympic champ Anna Chicherova (both 1.95m).
"It wasn't my day," said Vlasic, making her comeback from a
nine-month injury lay-off. "When the competition started, I was
emotionally totally empty.
"I wasn't able to push off, the last three steps were without push or
power." In what was dubbed the best men's steeple field ever assembled,
Kenyans took the first six places in a dominant showing led by
18-year-old tyro Conseslus Kipruto in 8min 04.48sec, 3sec off his world
lead set in Shanghai.
Aided by two Kenyan pacemakers, Kipruto, the bronze medallist at the
London Olympics, beat home two-time Olympic and world champion Ezekiel
Kemboi and Hillary Yego but failed to dip under the magical 8min mark.
"I was confident despite the fact that Kemboi is Olympic champion, a
very tough guy and hard to beat," beamed Kipruto as he continued his
unbeaten form this season.
Twice Olympic champion Meseret Defar of Ethiopia set a cracking new
world lead time of 14min 26.91sec to win the 5000m.
Leading through the bell, Defar accelerated from 250 metres to leave
Kenyan Viola Kibiwot and Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba trailing in her wake.
"I felt very comfortable through the race," said Defar. "I knew I
have the shape.
"I think I'm even in world record shape, but was not confident enough
to try for it." Olympic silver medallist Luguelin Santos of the
Dominican Republic finished in fourth in a slow men's 400m won by Saudi
Arabia's Youssef Ahmed Masrahi in 45.33sec.
It was the first ever win by a Saudi in a running event in the
Diamond League, and Masrahi expressed hope that his American coach, the
legendary John Smith, would be "satisfied" when he returned to his
training base in Los Angeles.
"This is very important for me towards the goal I have and that is a
medal in Moscow," said Masrahi, who only took up the one-lap race in
2008.
AFP |