Sep 06 2008
He’s Still Dominating!

Can someone tell him the Olympics is over!

Usain Bolt easily won the 100 meters in 9.83 seconds Friday night in the Weltklasse meet, his first competition since record-shattering performance in the Beijing Olympics.

Bolt’s return was upstaged by Pamela Jelimo, the 18-year-old Kenyan who won the women’s 800 in 1:54.01, the fastest time in more than two decades and the third fastest in history at the distance.

Jelimo and Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic stayed in contention for the 682,000 Golden League jackpot after both extended their unbeaten run to five at Europe’s elite summer meetings.

American sprinters Jeremy Wariner and Lolo Jones got a measure of compensation for their Olympic defeats by winning the men’s 400 and women’s 100 hurdles, respectively. Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia followed up his 5,000-10,000 gold medal double by running the fastest 5,000 in the world this year.

Bolt, who broke world records in the 100 (9.69), 200 (19.30) and 400 relay (37.10) in China, was the undoubted main attraction for the capacity crowd of 26,000 at a meet that calls itself “the Olympics in one night.”

Yet the 22-year-old Jamaican was never likely to threaten the world record time of 9.69 seconds he set in his astonishing run to Olympic gold.

Bolt was slowest of the nine starters to react to the gun, and it was fully 20 meters before he pulled his 6-foot-5 frame into the lead.
He drew clear of Walter Dix of the United States by the 60-meter mark but there was no trademark showboating as he eased smoothly to the line. Beijing bronze medalist Dix was second in 9.99 and silver medalist Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago third in 10.09.

“You can’t really compare it to the Olympics,” Bolt said. “The Olympics bring so much pressure. It was easy here. As I’m starting to get a cold I was not able to think about any faster time. My coach told me that I should make sure to end the season healthy.”
Bolt and his Jamaica team pulled out of a commitment to run the meet-closing 400 relay.

Running minutes before Bolt, Jelimo stepped up from her gold medal effort in Beijing by almost a second to run away from the field in the women’s 800.
Her time of 1:54.01 was a new African and world junior record and left her 0.73 seconds outside the world record set by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983.