Bolt, who admitted ahead of this meeting that he was "not invincible", gave the lie to that assessment at the Stade de France as he got away well and used the pressure exerted by his Jamaican compatriot Warren Weir, who has a season's best of 19.79 to maintain control of the race.

"That's good - I'm happy with myself," said the 26-year-old world 100 and 200m record holder, who won his first outing over the long sprint, at the Oslo Diamond League meeting, in 19.79.

"I'm getting there," he added.

"I still need to work on a few mistakes."

Usain Bolt wins the 200m at the Paris Diamond League meeting in the fastest time of the season, 19.73sec, ahead of fellow Jamaican Warren Weir (left) and Christophe Lemaitre

Weir finished second in 19.92, while France's world 200m bronze medallist and European 100m champion Christophe Lemaitre was third in 20.07.

There was a similar dynamic in the men's 400m, where Kirani James, the 20-year-old from Grenada who has earned world and Olympic titles in the last two years, maintained bragging rights over LaShawn Merritt, the Unted States Olympic champion from the 2008 Beijing Games who served a two-year doping ban from 2009 to 2011.

James won in 43.96, the fastest in the world this year, with the American in second place with 44.09.

Grenada's world and Olympic 400m champion Kirani James (right) beats Olympic 2008 champion LaShawn Merritt in Pars

However, Merritt's cousin, world 110m hurdles record holder and Olympic champion Aries Merritt, had a satisfactory day in the French capital as he won the 110m hurdles in 13.09.

There was bad news for another Olympic champion on the night however as Greg Rutherford, Britain's long jump gold medallist at the London 2012 Games, had to withdraw with a hamstring injury - a month ahead of the IAAF World Championships in Moscow - after recording a best of 7.99m in the third round.

France's world and Olympic pole vault champion Renaud Lavillenie, who failed to record a mark at the previous Diamond League meeting in Lausanne, got back to business as usual in front of his home crowd as he won with an effort of 5.92m.

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia, the Olympic 10,000m champion, won the 5,000m in 14min 23.68sec, the fastest time in the world this year.

Olympic champion, Germany's Robert Harting, won the discus with 67.04 metre, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the double Olympic champion at 100m, won in a season's best of 10.92.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]