BOLT BURIES TROUBLES: Usain shrugs off doubts about his form, as Mo wins in London meet
Football
By
AFP
| Jul 26, 2015
Usain Bolt and Mo Farah put recent troubles behind them in the London Diamond League meeting on Friday night with victories on the track where they won five Olympic golds between them in 2012.
Bolt admitted he needed to work on his rusty start ahead of next month’s world championships in Beijing, but was justifiably happy with his winning 100m run on his return after injury.
The 28-year-old Jamaican, who won Olympic 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay gold in London three years ago, was sluggish out of the starting blocks in the 100m final, but eased past Mike Rodgers in the last 10m, winning by 0.03sec in 9.87sec.
“Yeah, I had a poor start,” said Bolt, who had treatment for a pelvic problem after winning the 200m in the New York Diamond League meeting on June 13.
“I need to work on that, but overall it was an okay race. “My coach tells me about my start. It was bad. I wanted to run faster and it threw me off but I’m getting there.”
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Bolt also won his heat in 9.87sec, moving from joint 62nd to equal sixth in the world rankings for 2015, having clocked 10.13seconds in his only previous 100m of the year, in Rio de Janeiro in January.
It was the Jamaican’s fastest time since September 2013, when he clocked 9.80 seconds at the Brussels Diamond League meeting.
Justin Gatlin leads the 100m world rankings this year with 9.74 seconds and Bolt knows he will have to be sharper to get the better of the American in Beijing.
“I’m ready to go (to Beijing) and I’m ready to win,” said the Jamaican, who has held the 100m and 200m world records since 2009.
Farah thanked the British public for supporting him through a difficult time after being roared to victory by a 41,000 home crowd in the fastest 3000m time of the year — his first race on home soil since doping allegations were made against his coach Alberto Salazar.
The 32-year-old Briton, who won Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m gold in 2012, pulled clear of his rivals with 300 metres to go, crossing the line in seven minutes 34.66 seconds with Othmane El Goumri of Morocco second in 7:36.71 and Kenya’s Emmanuel Kipsang third in 7:37.05. — AFP