Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt ran a season’s best of 9.95 seconds to win the 100m at Friday’s Diamond League in Monaco.
In his second appearance in Europe in his farewell season, Bolt produced a trademark strong second segment to beat out American Isiah Young by 0.03sec.
Bolt, winner of eight Olympic and 11 world gold medals, will bring down the curtain on his glittering career at August’s world championships in London.
But for the moment, it remains entertainment, and Bolt, as he has done consistently throughout his career, played to the sell-out 17,000-capacity crowd at the Louis II Stadium when introduced in warm, balmy weather.
Starting in lane four, Bolt was second slowest out of the blocks, the 100 and 200m world record holder easily matched by Young in lane two.
The crowd, on their feet, roared, and so Bolt responded as he has so many times before, moving into his famed “drive phase”, head coming slowly up as part of the process that unleashes the full power from his long legs.
The towering Jamaican duly powered home, even easing up over the line, with Young in second and South African Akani Simbine in third (10.02) in a photo-finish from Britain’s Chijindu Ujah.
While Bolt’s winning time was far off his world record of 9.58sec, set back at the Berlin world championships in 2009, it at least broke that 10-sec barrier, for the first time this season. – Agence France-Presse
