Bolt eases home in first 100m of season

ATHLETICS:HE DIDN'T exactly pick up where he left off last summer but Usain Bolt still coasted to victory in his first 100 metres of the season at the Daegu Pre-Championships meet in South Korea yesterday.

The Jamaican superstar actually stumbled out of the starting-blocks and took a while to hit full stride – but after that the outcome was typically inevitable, as he eased across the line in 9.86 seconds.

That was well down on the 9.58 world record Bolt produced at the World Championships in Berlin last August, and he didn’t look too pleased with the time either, although given the early stage of the season it was impressive nonetheless. Bolt was typically relaxed and hardly broke any sweat and with a better start the time would have been significantly faster.

Still it was the fastest 100 metres run so far this season; fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell ran 9.81 seconds to win the 100 metres at the opening Diamond League meeting in Qatar on Friday, but that time was wind-assisted.

Bolt also finished well clear of his 2008 Olympic gold medal-winning relay team-mate Michael Frater, who took second in 10.15, with American Mike Rodgers taking third place in 10.18.

Travis Padgett, with a personal best of 9.89 was expected to be Bolt’s main competition, but the American came home fifth, trailing 0.44 seconds behind Bolt.

Even if Bolt wasn’t overly impressed by his own time it was still a meeting record, 0.08 second ahead of the 9.94 seconds set by Tyson Gay of the United States last year. Still only 23, it was actually only the 19th 100 metres race that Bolt has ever run in his life – and he still considers himself a 200-metres specialist. His trademark antics and jovial mood were also on show, as Bolt flexed his muscles on the starting line and later pulling off his famous archer pose. His appearance in South Korea has been much hyped as the country tries to drum up some interest in the sport ahead of the 2011 World Championships, which take place in the same stadium.

The meeting also served as a warm-up to Bolt’s Diamond League debut on Sunday in Shanghai, where he will compete over 200 metres, although it will be later in the season before he’ll clash with both Powell and Gay, possibly in Zurich, as there are no global outdoor championships this year.

Given Powell’s time last weekend and the fact Gay broke the straight 200 metres world record in Manchester on Sunday, Bolt may not have it all his own way this season, but competition does bring out the best in him, and it shouldn’t be long before he does run closer to that 9.58 seconds.

Meanwhile, the winner of a women’s half marathon in Shandong, China, last weekend has been stripped of her title after she was discovered to have brought in someone else to run for her.

Liu Shuling was initially awarded victory in the race at the Yellow River Estuary International Marathon, but video footage later revealed her to be Wang Xueqin, the People’s Daily newspaper reported yesterday.