Jamaican athletics superstar Usain Bolt easily beat compatriot and this season’s fastest man over 100m Steve Mullings here on Tuesday at the Golden Spike event
The 24-year-old world record holder timed 9.91sec, the same time as he ran in the Diamond League event in Rome last weeek. “My time is not bad, but it could be better. I expected a faster time,” Bolt told reporters after the race. “It’s not even close (to ideal). I have a lot of work to do,” he added.
Mullings finished in 9.97sec, shy of his season’s best of 9.89sec run in April, while Antigua’s Daniel Bailey was third in 10.08sec. Bolt only returned to competition in Rome last Thursday after a nine-month break since he was beaten by American Tyson Gay in Stockholm last August. “I’m coming back after nine or ten months and I’m not going to run 9.8, 9.7. I take a step at a time and a race at a time,” said the reigning Olympic and world champion. Three months before the world championships in Daegu, South Korea, Bolt said he needed more training to make the time “go down in two months.” “I’ve almost three months to make it work and so I want to focus on that right now. This is what I need to do to get back to 9.5, 9.6,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown, the reigning double Olympic 200m champion, clocked this season’s lead time in the 100m, storming across the line in 10.76sec, ahead of Bahamas veteran Debbie Ferguson and compatriot Schillonie Calvert. Campbell-Brown also set an unofficial world record of 9.91sec on the 100-yard distance measured within the Ostrava race. Indeed it was a great night for the powerful Jamaican contingent as Marvin Anderson won the 200m in 20.27sec and his compatriot Jermaine Gonzales dominated the 400m in 45.07sec. South Africa’s LJ van Zyl equalled his own world-leading time of 47.66sec in the 400m hurdles while reigning Olympic 110m hurdles champion and world-record holder Dayron Robles from Cuba won in 13.14sec, slower than his world-leading time from last weekend by 0.07sec.