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Usain Bolt cruised to a facile victory in the men's 200m at the Bislett Games in Oslo on Thursday, clocking the year's fastest time of 19.86 seconds in rainy conditions.

Dressed in black lycra shorts, white singlet and white running shoes, Bolt delighted the crowd at Oslo's premiere athletics stadium with his usual pre-race antics, dancing for the camera and pretending to wet his fingers and dampen down any errant eyebrows.

As a warm-up to earlier events, Bolt had also been paraded around the track in a sponsor's car, his torso sticking through the sunroof, lightning bolt poses pulled and salutations thrown all around to a booming Bob Marley soundtrack.

But come the starter's pistol, the 24-year-old world record holder at the event proved that all the goofing around was just part of his showmanship as he destroyed the weak field, although finishing far off his world record of 19.19sec.

It was Bolt's first outing over 200m in 13 months, his last race coming in the Shanghai Diamond League meeting in May 2010.

But the double world and Olympic sprint champion, who admitted that the 200m was his favoured event, showed no track rustiness, easing into the bend and hitting the back straight absolutely flying.

Starting in lane six, the Jamaican had caught compatriot Mario Forsythe on his outside within the first 15 metres, and in the final 80 metres there was no one to come close to the Jamaican.