The impressive win in Rome was the perfect way to eliminate any blues Bolt felt after losing to Gatlin in the 100m last week. PHOTO: AFP
The Jamaican sprint star raced to a Bislett Games meet record and world lead time of 19.79 seconds to finish well ahead of a weak field made worse when his closest rival, Dutchman Churandy Martina, was disqualified for a false start.
Bolt made sure he was well away at the second time of asking to rebound from just his fifth defeat on the track since the 2008 Beijing Olympics with an awesome display of power both around the bend and also down the home stretch.
“It’s a very good start for my first 200m [of the season],” he said. “I’ll now go home and work on everything else. I’ll aim to go even faster.”
Bolt’s next outing will be at the Jamaican national trials ahead of August 10-18 world championships in Moscow.
While Bolt shone, there were, however, off-days for Trinidad and Tobago’s Olympic javelin champion Keshorn Walcott and former two-time world high jump champion Blanka Vlasic of Croatia.
Walcott’s best of 77.03m saw him finish 10th and last in a competition won by Czech Vitezslav Vesely (85.96m). Norway’s two-time former Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen was sixth with 80.99m.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 15th, 2013.
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