No lightning from Bolt, as Jelimo fires broadside
OSTRAVA, Czech Republic, May 26 (AFP) - A flat-looking Usain Bolt
raced his worst 100m in three years here on Friday, still managing to
claim victory after he recovered sufficiently from a dreadful start and
a limp drive phase.
The Jamaican double Olympic sprint champion clocked 10.04 seconds,
some distance off the 9.7sec time he was seeking to build on his
season-opening 9.82sec earlier this month.
A false start played its part, throwing a distinctly average field
into automatic play-safe mode.
Into a -0.8m/s headwind, Bolt grimaced his way from the 50m mark and
did enough to beat home veteran Kim Collins of St Kitts and St Nevis
(10.19sec) with American Darivs Patton third (10.22).
"I haven't run that badly since a meet in Canada in 2009," said a
noticeably downbeat Bolt, also the world record holder in both the 100
and 200m (9.58 and 19.19sec).
"That's reality, a very bad day at the starting blocks. When I was in
the back warming up, I did some starts and I was flying.
"But I ran out and didn't get going, couldn't generate speed in
middle of race so I had to work hard to get some speed up." Elsewhere on
the track, defending Olympic champion Pamela Jelimo of Kenya fired a
broadside at South African pretender Caster Semenya with a convincing
victory in the women's 800m.
Jelimo, also the newly-crowned world indoor champion but who missed
almost three years of competition after her Beijing Games triumph
through injury, dominated the race to win in 1min 58.49sec, with Semenya
in second in 2:00.80.
"Of course everybody wants to do their best because it is so close to
the Olympics," said Jelimo, whose kick at the bell opened up too much
air between her and the chasing pack.
"I do not run against anybody, including Caster. I just focus on
myself. I want to try and do even better next week."
Semenya, with doubts over her real gender long buried in her past,
left her push for the line too late.
The South African, who shot to fame when she won the world title in
Berlin in 2009 but was then sidelined for 11 months during a probe into
her true gender, settled in at the back of the pack and only kicked with
150m to go.
By that stage, Jelimo had kicked and there was too much for Semenya,
now coached by Mozambique running legend Maria Mutola, to make up.
"I'm quite happy with my preparations for the Olympics. I now just
need to build up more speed for competition," said Semenya.
There was more South African disappointment when double amputee Oscar
Pistorius raced a horrendous 400m in his ongoing bid to nail
qualification for the able-bodied Olympics.The 25-year-old South
African, who runs with carbon-fibre artificial 'blades', came in a sorry
eighth and last in 47.66sec, 2.54sec off American winner LaShawn Merritt
and far away from the 45.70 he needs to run to ensure his participation
at the London Games.
"The time was so bad!" Pistorius said. "I don't know what to say. I
can run that fast at the end of a tough training session or straight
after getting up out of bed in the morning."
The stand-out field performance was from Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie,
who made his return to competition in impressive style by setting a new
world lead and meet record of 5.90m in the pole vault in blustery
conditions.
"It was a great start to the season," beamed Lavillenie. "I'm not
unbeatable, but it's a good response to (Bjorn) Otto", who had set the
previous world lead of 5.83m on Wednesday. |