Not Justin Gatlin, the American who had beaten him in Rome two months earlier.

Not any of his three Jamaican compatriots who had made the final.

And certainly not the driving rain which had arrived after he had won his semi-final in glaring sunshine and had formed pools on the blue track ahead of him, turning it turquoise.

As the storm rolled over the Stadium at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships, the six-time Olympic gold medallist became a living thunder Bolt, catching up his American rival at the 30m mark and moving smoothly away as he has done so often in the last five years.

At that point of a 100m race, the 6ft 5in sprinter from Trelawny appears to have been manufactured on a different scale to the mortals struggling alongside him.

He crossed the line in a season's best of 9.77sec and set off on a familiar tour of adoring fans leaning over the barriers in the downpour.

Gatlin, who made a point of embracing his rival afterwards, took silver with a season's best of 9.85, finishing 0.10sec ahead of Nesta Carter, one of four Jamaicans in the final.

The American was the only runner between the Jamaicans and a clean sweep.


The other Jamaicans Kemar Bailey-Cole was fourth in 9.98, and Nickel Ashmeade was fifth in the same time.

The minor places went to Gatlin's compatriot Mike Rodgers, sixth in 10.04, France's Christophe Lemaitre, seventh in 10.06, and Britain's James Dasaolu, eighth in 10.21.

Two years after false starting in the Daegu World Championships 100m final, Jamaica's world record holder got almost everything right - and still managed to engage the crowd with pre-race playfulness that included miming the opening of an umbrella.

It's the kind of thing you can only do if you keep on winning.

But Bolt keeps on winning - and it is hard to believe the result would have been different had the sprinters suspended for positive doping tests, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, had been here.

"I am happy, but I wanted to do better," Bolt said.

"My legs were sore after the semi-finals.

"I don't know why, but the world record wasn't on, so I came out just to win.

"Back in Jamaica they do not expect less than that from me."

Not just in Jamaica, as it happens...

Elsewhere, Brittney Reese of the United States won a third consecutive long jump title with 7.01 metres, just holding off the challenge of Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare, who managed 6.99.

Reese, who had been struggling with a cold, had only managed to scrape into the final by securing the 12th qualifying spot, but she was unreachable once again on the big night.


There was a second US gold on the night as decathlete Ashton Eaton, the Olympic champion and world record holder, retained his world title with a dominant second-day display, scoring a total of 8,809 points - well short of his world record of 9,039, but good enough.

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia regained the 10,000m world title she last owned in 2007 with a last lap of 59.96 that did it for all her opposition in a race that did not feature her rival teammate Meseret Defar, who is concentrating here on the distance in which she holds the Olympic title - the 5,000m.

Sandra Perković of Croatia became the first woman to complete the Grand Slam of Olympic, European and world titles in the discus as she produced the three longest throws of the competition, the best of them 67.99m.

In the pole vault, home legend Yelena Isinbayeva thrilled a two-thirds full stadium by qualifying safely for Tuesday's (August 13) final with a best effort of 4.55m.

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