Jamaica’s Usain Bolt shook off a “horrible start” to win the 100M at the Racers Grand Prix athletics meeting in 9.88 seconds, the second-fastest time in the world this year.
“It wasn’t a perfect race, but the good thing was that I won and I came out injury free,” said Bolt, who got away slowly but powered home, catching the field at about 50 meters and celebrating as he got to the line first to the delight of a big crowd at the national stadium in Kingston.
The sprint superstar led three compatriots under 10 seconds in a race run in a wind of one meter per second.
Nickel Ashmeade and Yohan Blake were both timed in 9.94sec, with Asafa Powell finishing in 9.98.
The race was only the fourth time that Bolt, former world record holder Powell and 2011 world champion Yohan Blake have clashed in Kingston.
Running before his home crowd for the first time in about two years, Bolt said: “It’s good to be back, it has been a while since I ran here.”
With the August 5-21 Rio Games less than two months away, Bolt moved ahead of Justin Gatlin on the 2016 world list, the American owning a time of 9.93 that puts him fourth-fastest in the world this year.
World and Olympic champion Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce won the women’s 100M in a subdued 11.09sec, coming back from a toe injury that has hampered her training.
American Barbara Pierre was second in 11.11 and Trinidad and Tobago’s Kelly-Ann Baptiste took third in 11.15 seconds.
Bolt up for returning gold
Usain Bolt has said he would have no problem giving back one of his six Olympic gold medals if a Jamaican relay team-mate is confirmed to have failed a drugs test.
Nesta Carter, who helped the 4x100 team to Olympic and world championship titles, returned a doping violation for the banned stimulant methylhexanamine in a re-test of 454 samples from the Beijing Games.
Carter's "B" sample also came back positive.
"It's heartbreaking (the positive test) because over the years you've worked hard to accumulate gold medals and work hard to be a champion ... but it's just one of those things," Bolt told Reuters late on Saturday.