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20 Sports
Saturday, 2 June, 2012
ROME: Jamaica's Usain Bolt (C) competes to win the Men's 100 Metre event during the Diamond League athletics meet. afp
Bolt scorches to fastest time of the year ROMA afp
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ORLD record holder Usain Bolt stormed to the fastest time of the year in winning the 100m at the Diamond League meeting here on Thursday. Olympic champion Bolt ran 9.76sec, beating the time he set earlier this month in Kingston by six hundredths of a second. Compatriot and former world record holder Asafa Powell was second in 9.91sec with French european champion Christophe Lemaitre an impressive third in a high quality field in 10.04sec. World bronze medallist Kim Collins of St Kitts & Nevis was fourth in 10.05sec. The win, and more importantly the time, made up for Bolt's sluggish performance in Ostrava last week where he ran his slowest time in three years, 10.04sec. Although he said Tuesday he wasn't bothered by that run, it clearly had got to him. Asked if he was happy to have put that run behind him, Bolt was categoric. "Yes, it's a slight relief, I knew i could do it," he told BBC3. "I've not been sleeping very well since I arrived in europe so I made sure I've been going to bed earlier. "I'm feeling good now, I'm coming back. "People expect me to do well, I expect it of myself also. I came here
tonight not to prove to the world anything but to show I've still got it." Bolt did not have the best start but Lemaitre inside him
in lane three was the slowest out of the blocks. As the race picked up into its middle part Bolt and Powell were starting to ease
clear but the fastest man of all time's long legs saw him stride out in front and there was no doubt who the winner would be.
bolt wants coach to explain where he went wrong rome: Usain Bolt may have won in the fastest time this year and set a new meeting record at the Diamond League in Rome but he is still expecting coach Glen Mills to explain what he did wrong. While he could understandably be upset with his 10.04sec run in Ostrava last week despite winning, it seemed as if everything had clicked into place in the eternal City. The world record holder ran 9.76sec, lowering his own season's best by six hundredths of a second and beating Tyson Gay's meet record by just 0.01sec. His start was reasonable and once he got into his stride he was a class apart, striding clear of a talented field. Asafa Powell, the former world record holder, was second in 9.91sec with european champion Christophe Lemaitre third in 10.04sec. But now Bolt believes he needs to go back to the drawing board. "Overall it was a good race, last time I came here it was without a lot of races, but this time the execution was good," he said. "I'm happy but I'm just going to go home and call my coach so he can explain to me what I did wrong, what I did right and I'll look forward to the next race." The Olympic champion was a little terse when asked for the umpteenth time about his poor run in Ostrava. "I've expained to you guys that everyone has a bad race every now and again, I just have to go back to the drawing board. "I couldn't sleep
in Ostrava but here I made sure I went to bed early. "I do eat fast food but I do try to get a lot of pasta in, as you get older you have to watch your diet." As for his start he wasn't entirely satisfied, despite Lemaitre next to him coming out the blocks far slower. "That's always the biggest point of my race, I think it's all about consistency. The rest comes together if you get a good start." However, there was no doubt that Bolt feels he is on the right track in terms of his Olympic preparation. "I think I'm getting there, it wasn't the perfect race, it had flaws but I just have to continue working on what's necessary." While Bolt was at best satisfied, Powell was quite upset. He said he'd had problems at the start, which explained why he briefly started running in former world champion Kim Collins's lane. "I didn't hear set and I didn't hear go, I just came out the starting blocks with Kim Collins, that's all," said Powell. "I didn't get out the starting blocks like I should, I didn't start properly, I was all over the track and the last part of the race I let everything get the best of me and slowed down. "I expect a better race (in Oslo), I'll go there to execute and I hope all goes well and I run a lot better. "My training is going very well, I'm very upset about this race, not that I lost but that I didn't get to execute as I wanted to. afp
hooker upbeat as olympics loom SYDNEY afp
Australia's Olympic champion Steve Hooker said he was encouraged by finishing sixth in his latest pole vault competition at the Rome Diamond League meet, reports said Friday. In his second international competition since returning from a bout of the runway "yips" that forced him out of the Australian domestic season, Hooker Thursday cleared 5.42 metres, 58 centimetres short of his personal outdoor best. Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie demonstrated how far Hooker needs to progress before next month's London Olympics, clearing 5.82m. "I've come here and I've done some good training. The body is feeling good and I'm working with the physio over here," Hooker told the Athletics Australia website. "I had a really good warm-up. everything went according to plan up until 5.60m where I had that stop on the first attempt, which probably cost me." Hooker said he would be working on further improvement for his next competition in Munich on June 5.
rome: kazakhstan's olga rypakova performs to win the women's triple Jump event during the Diamond League athletics meeting. AfP
hurdles hoopla, sprint stars top Pre field EUGENE afp
A star-studded men's 110-meter hurdles lineup and US sprint stars Justin Gatlin and Allyson Felix top a deep talent pool set to compete at the 38th Prefontaine Classic track meet on Saturday. The Diamond League gathering will be staged at the site where the US Olympic Track and Field Trials are set to begin on June 22, with a host of top global stars coming to test the best of the Americans at Hayward Field. Athens 2004 Olympic champion Liu Xiang of China sparks a 110 hurdles showdown with reigning world outdoor champion Jason Richardson, reigning world indoor champion Aries Merritt and American record holder David Oliver. World record-holder and reigning Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba was to have competed but the Cuban track federation said that he would not compete "after a recent analysis of preparations for the Olympic Games." Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic 100m champion who served a four-year doping ban and began a comeback in 2010, captured the world indoor 60m crown last March and won the Diamond League 100m opener at Doha in 9.87 seconds. It was the 30-year-old American's fastest outdoor opener since he began pro sprinting at age 19. Gatlin will be tested in the 100 by Walter Dix, the world outdoor 100 and 200 runner-up, and Jamaicans Nesta Carter and Nick Ashmeade. Dix and fellow American Wallace Spearmon, who owns the second fastest time in the world this year, will be favored in the 200. Reigning Diamond League 100m and 200m champion Carmelita Jeter will join three-time world outdoor champion Felix in the women's 200. Reigning Olympic champion and season leader LaShawn Merritt and 2004 Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner will be joined in a 400-meter battle by reigning world champion Kirani James, an 18-year-old from Grenada. Two-time Olympic 400m hurdles champion Angelo Taylor and Oscar Pistorius, the "Blade Runner" from South Africa trying to secure a berth at the London Olympics, will also be in the 400. World 400m indoor champion Sanya RichardsRoss will face reigning world outdoor champion Amantle Montsho of Botswana and 2012 world-leader Novlene WilliamsMills of Jamaica in the women's 400. Reigning world champion Christian Taylor and reigning world indoor champion Will Claye will be tested by Britain's Phillip Idowu in the triple jump.