OLYMPIC 100 metres champion Usain Bolt proved yet again that he is the fastest man on the planet by finishing ahead of fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell in last night's Memorial Van Damme meeting in Brussels.
Bolt roared to victory in 9.77 seconds, a fast time given the wet conditions.
Although Powell had another disappointing Olympics where he managed only fifth place, his post-Beijing victories with times of 9.87secs last Sunday at Gateshead and 9.7
2secs in Lausanne two days later, showed he was again at the peak of his form.
Bolt had his customary poor start and was the last sprinter out of his blocks so had no opportunity to showboat as another defeat at the hands of Powell looked to be on the cards.
His countryman, who beat him in the Stockholm Super Grand Prix at the end of July, looked to be on track to repeat that success until the tall Bolt finally got his long legs into full gear. That saw Bolt running under ten seconds for the tenth time this season and on a very wet track come level 20 metres from the line before he surged ahead to win by a narrow 0.06secs.
Bolt, who broke Powell's 12-month old meeting record of 9.84secs, was relieved to come up trumps after his poor start and admitted that he needs to concentrate in future to get it right.
"I still have to get used to the different starters," said Bolt, who nevertheless has seen his finishing speed over both 100m and 200m atone for the shortcoming.
In other events, British No 1 Martyn Rooney produced an excellent display to snatch second place over 400m behind Olympic silver medallist Jeremy Wariner.
Mo Farah, who failed to make the Olympic final, produced a much better run and confirmed his status as a world-class runner to finish fourth over 5,000m.
Marilyn Okoro matched her fifth place in last week's Zurich Golden League 800m with a time of 1min 59.33secs, with Jenny Meadows four places further back and clocked 2min 02.22secs.
The pair, like the rest of the field, were mere spectators as Olympic champion Pamela Jelimo won the IAAF $1 million jackpot and set a meeting record of 1min 55.16secs.
The full article contains 388 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
