Justin Gatlin ruined Usain Bolt’s farewell party when the 35-year-old American won the world 100 metres title on Saturday, beating the Jamaican superstar into third and sparking a chorus of boos from a London crowd unhappy with his doping past.
What was meant to be a glorious celebration of the departure of the sport’s greatest showman turned into a condemnation of its biggest pantomime villain as Gatlin, twice banned for drug offences, rolled back the years to win a second world title 12 years after his first and 13 after claiming Olympic 100m gold.
As so often before Bolt made a terrible start but this time he could not make it up as Christian Coleman, the 21-year-old American who beat him in the semifinals, looked set for victory. But Gatlin, who stumbled at the death to lose the 2015 world final by a hundredth of a second to Bolt, on this occasion timed his surge and dip to perfection to win in 9.92 seconds. Coleman, who has run over 40 races this year but turned professional a few weeks ago, took silver in 9.94.
Bolt, straining every sinew, fought all the way to the line but the pace and grace that took him to his world record of 9.58 eight years ago has withered with age and perennial injury battles and this time he ran out of track.
Our Sports Bureau adds:
Asian champion Nirmala Sheoran entered the women’s 400m semifinal at the World Athletics Championships in London on Sunday, making the cut as one of the fastest losers after finishing fourth in her heat in an impressive 52.01s.
The 22-year-old from Haryana is the first Indian quartermiler in 16 years to qualify for the Worlds semifinal, after Kerala’s K.M. Beenamol who made the grade in 2001 in Edmonton, also as one of the fastest losers.
Meanwhile Kerala’s Thonakal Gopi, the Asian 10,000m silver medallist who began running the marathon only last year, finished a decent 28th in the men’s marathon.
Siddhanth crashes out
Mumbai’s Siddhanth Thingalaya, who qualified for the Worlds with a national record-breaking 13.48s run in the US recently, crashed out after finishing seventh in his heats in the men’s 110m hurdles in 13.64s.
The results: Men: 100m: 1. Justin Gatlin (USA) 9.92s, 2. Christian Coleman (USA) 9.94, 3. Usain Bolt (Jam) 9.95; Long jump: 1. Luvo Manyonga (RSA) 8.48m, 2. Jarrion Lawson (USA) 8.44, 3. Ruswahl Samaai (RSA) 8.32; Discus: 1. Andrius Gudzius (Ltu) 69.21, 2. Daniel Stahl (Swe) 69.19, 3. Mason Finley (USA) 68.03.
Women: 10,000m: 1. Almaz Ayana (Eth) 30:16.32s, 2. Tirunesh Dibaba (Eth) 31:02.69, 3. Agnes Jebet Tirop (Ken) 31:03.50.
1. Justin Gatlin (U.S.) 9.92
2. Christian Coleman (U.S.) 9.94
3. Usain Bolt (Jamaica) 9.95
4. Yohan Blake (Jamaica) 9.99
5. Akani Simbine (South Africa) 10.01
6. Jimmy Vicaut (France) 10.08
7. Reece Prescod (Britain) 10.17
8. Su Bingtian (China) 10.27
