Blogs

Bolt beats rain again, 9.79sec into slight head wind in Paris

Posted by CaribShout on July 17, 2009 at 6:00pm

Paris, France – On a cool, extremely damp night in the Stade de France Usain Bolt defied the rain again to win the 100m in a meeting record of 9.79 sec this evening (17) at the Meeting Areva, the fourth of sixth meetings of the ÅF Golden League 2009. Bolt braved heavy rain similar to the conditions he faced over 200m in Lausanne on 7 July, to secure a 9.79 win (-0.2m/s) which obliterated Asafa Powell’s meet mark of 9.85sec set here in 2006. Once again this season we found the start of the triple Olympic champion wanting, he was the second slowest away of the nine man field, and while it's only relative to his unapproachable standards Bolt when he did get into the lead didn’t seem to power away in the same effortless manner we have come to expect. That impression was partly created by the impressive race put up by Antigua’s Daniel Bailey whose 9.91 in runner’s-up spot was a national record and Yohan Blake, who only 19 years and 203 days, crossed in third in a personal best of 9.93. Only last week in Rome in much more conducive weather conditions for sprinting, the Jamaican teenager had gone under 10sec for the first time (9.96). Impressive! Back to the pinnacle of the results sheet and whatever the slight reservations we had certainly witnessed another piece of Bolt brilliance, and in tonight’s conditions (18c and driving rain at the time of the 100m) Bolt had every right to “be happy, it was a good race….” “In these conditions the time is great but it was hard to put everything in place from start to finish.” “My reaction time is poor and this is something I have to work on in the next weeks before Berlin.” Stewart dominant Kerron Stewart looked majestic in the women’s dash, every inch the double Olympic medallist, and was never really challenged winning in 10.99sec. In current form the Jamaican looks just as likely a gamble for the jackpot as any of the other three challengers for the $1 Million purse.

Community

Culture

Entertainment

Food

Health