Usain Bolt pips Justin Gatlin for World Championships 100m gold

Usain Bolt has retained his crown as world 100 metres champion following a thrilling victory over American rival Justin Gatlin at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing.

The Jamaican produced a season best time of 9.79 – just 0.01 quicker than his American counterpart – to secure his ninth World Championship gold medal. American Trayvon Bromell and Canadian Andre de Grasse shared the bronze in a dead heat. With three solid performances in the long jump, the javelin and the concluding 800, the Olympic champion – then known as Jessica Ennis – won her second world title, six years after her first. I have gone through a lot this season.

With such highlights to a career, embellished with a further world title in Moscow two years ago and another Olympic gold in London in 2012, it was hard to conceive how Bolt could achieve any more. ‘One can overdramatise these things but if you felt the impact in the stadium of Bolt’s win, you’ll understand just how much every athletics fan really wanted Bolt to win.

Gatlin simply stated “I’m thankful” when asked repeatedly for his thoughts on the sport willing him not to win.

Besides Gatlin, big names of the sport like Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, who both finished in an even 10 seconds in sixth and seventh, were among those in the field on Sunday to have served IAAF suspensions.

The victory only builds the legend of Bolt for this was doubtless the most unexpected win for the world record holder and multiple world and Olympics gold medallist.

That was how Usain Bolt won the 100m world title for a record-equalling third time.

Gatlin’s return to the top of athletics following a four-year drug ban which expired in 2010 has left many within the sport feeling at best uncomfortable and at worst outraged.

Bolt highlighted the value of a discussion with his coach, Glen Mills, after he nearly lost his footing at the start of his semi-final.

He was disqualified from the shorter race at the Deagu world championships in 2011, however, and flirted with a similar mishap when he stumbled out of the blocks in the semi-finals earlier yesterday.

That continued in the Chinese capital to set Gatlin up as a clear favorite. In the first event of the day, Baljinder Singh was initially adjudged to have finished at 12th with a timing of 1:21:44 which would have been his personal best effort. “It’s a big deal”, Bolt Said after the win.

It could have been so different had Bolt failed to recover from a stumble at the start in the semifinals.

Bolt had sought to play down concerns that he has been struggling to maintain his own high standards, calmly telling reporters he was in “wonderful condition” after Saturday’s heats.