Lausanne (Switzerland), July 10 (IANS) American sprinter Justin Gatlin powered past big names, while Mo Farah dominated the long distance event at the Lausanne Diamond League.
The 33-year-old Gatlin clocked 9.75 seconds to easily win over Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay in the men’s 100 metres sprint here on Thursday, reports Xinhua.
His time is just 0.01s off pace from the season’s world leading result of himself, set in May at the Doha Diamond League meeting.
Former world record holder Powell finished the second in 9.92 seconds and the 2007 world champion Gay in third on the same time at the ninth of the 14 stops Diamond League series.
“I’ve been wanting to go faster,” said Gatlin, who has served two doping bans after the race on Thursday.
“During the race I was in my zone and it felt really great.”
With Jamaica’s 100m world record holder Usain Bolt pulling out of the event in Lausanne as pre-caution to a leg injury, Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic champion, restated his form as the August 22-30 world championships is just around the corner.
“It’s not a message to anybody,” said Gatlin.
“Usain is a great opponent, so it’s on me to go out and give him the best challenge I can. Hopefully he will be healthy and ready to go for the world championships.”
Later in the men’s 5,000 meters, Somalian-born Briton Mo Farah made a winning return into action though he’s still under shade of doping claims against his coach Alberto Salazar.
The 32-year-old waved both his fists crossing the line in 13 minutes and 11.77 seconds to beat Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha into the second place by 0.82s, while Edwin Cheruiyot Soi of Kenya finished a distance third on 13:17.17.
Farah, Olympic and world champion for both 5,000m and 10,000m, was competing for the first time since claims were made by British and American media that Salazar violated several anti-doping rules.
Salazar rejected the claims and denying any wrongdoing, while Farah insisted to stand by his American coach and even pulled out of a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham because of the claims.
“This victory is also a way to answer some of the critics regarding my coach that came out lately,” said Farah on Thursday.