Olympic 200m champion and world record holder Usain Bolt got his bid to claim a world sprint double off to the perfect start when he cruised through his heat on Tuesday.
Olympic 200m champion and world record holder Usain Bolt got his bid to claim a world sprint double off to the perfect start when he cruised through his heat on Tuesday.
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The 22-year-old Jamaican, who set a new world record of 9.58sec in winning the 100m on Sunday, is seeking to emulate his triple Olympic gold medal haul achieved at the Beijing Games last year.
American Tyson Gay, the defending triple world sprint champion, finished second to Bolt in the 100m in an American record time of 9.71sec but aggravated a nagging groin injury.
Gay then decided not to race in the 200m and defend his title, instead focusing on preparing for a possible appearance in the US 4x100m relay.
In Gay's absence, the mantle in the much-hyped US v Jamaica sprint-off passed to veteran Shawn Crawford, the US champion, and reigning world bronze medallist Wallace Spearmon.
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| Tyson Gay |
Crawford, the 2004 Olympic 200m champion and former training partner of disgraced sprinter Justin Gatlin, made no mistake by winning his heat with ease in 20.60sec to progress to the quarter-finals scheduled for 1655 GMT.
Crawford finished a distant fourth behind Bolt at Beijing but found himself promoted ultimately to second as Spearmon and Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles were disqualified.
Martina did not start his heat here, won by Germany's Robert Hering and in which Spearmon, who also won silver in the Helsinki worlds in 2005, appeared to be suffering before producing a burst at the end to ensure second place and progression to the quarters.
Dwain Chambers, who finished sixth in the 100m final, did not start, but compatriot Marlon Devonish, the 2003 world indoor 200m champion and multi-medal winning relay team member, won his heat in 20.92sec.
Bolt, sporting bright orange running shoes, again entertained the crowd with his pre-race goofing around, but suffered the worst start of all the sprinters in his heat and was quickly down on Sam Effah of Canada.
But any chance of a shock upset were soon dispelled when, once around the bend into the final stretch, the chicken nugget-loving Bolt propelled his towering frame past Effah to win in 20.70sec, a long way off his world record of 19.30sec set at the Beijing Games final.
Rondell Sorillo of Trinidad came in second with Effah third.
The semi-finals will be run on Wednesday with the final slated for Thursday.
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