Sprinter Maurice Greene sounded an early warning to his rivals today, clocking the fastest 100 metres of the year and brushing aside a grand prix field with ominous ease.
Greene, the Olympic champion and world record holder, romped away to win the Osaka grand prix event in Japan in 9.96 seconds in a repeat of his early-season victory here last year.
"I ran the best race I could. I knew it was going to be tough because I've been training with Bernard Williams and I knew that he was going to come out here and push me down the track," Greene said.
"I want this season to be better than last. I want to take it from here and break my world record."
But if the second-placed Williams did any pushing, it was from a long way behind Greene who was deprived of a real test by the late withdrawal of Sydney bronze medallist Obadele Thompson of Barbados.
Greene said his aim for this season, besides breaking his own world record of 9.79 seconds, was to go one better than his Olympic haul of two golds in Edmonton by taking the 200 metres title as well as the shorter sprint and the 4x100 metres relay.
The 200 metres was the only real blemish on Greene's golden season last year after a dramatic injury in the U.S. Olympic trials ruled him out of a triple in Sydney.