Athletics: Usain Bolt finished strongly to win in Zurich
Sprinting great Usain Bolt had to dig deep to triumph in the 100m at the Weltklasse Diamond League meeting in Zurich.
Last Updated: 29/08/13 10:32pm
The world and Olympic champion had the slowest reaction time out of the blocks and he was chasing his fellow Jamaican, Nickel Ashmeade, for much of the race.
However, Bolt would not be denied and finished strongly to take the lead at the 85-metre point before triumphing in a time of 9.90 seconds.
Ashmead came home second in 9.94, just ahead of Justin Gatlin (9.96) of the United States, who had been second to Bolt in the recent World Championships in Moscow.
Britain's Adam Gemili finished eighth but clocked a season's best of 10.06, just outside his personal best of 10.05.
"That was the worst race of the season," said Bolt. "The more I run, the worse my reaction time gets. This race, it was really hard and I was a little sore. It's time to get home now.
"My coach (Glen Mills) knows that, when it comes to the end of the season, I am not the perfect athlete."
Flamboyant as ever, Bolt delighted the crowd before the race, pressing his hands together as if in prayer and then showing off some karate-style moves.
Proctor wins for Britain
There was a British victory in the women's long jump as Shara Proctor triumphed with a leap of 6.88m.
The 24-year-old had finished sixth in the World Championships but this time she beat gold medallist Brittney Reese, who could only manage 6.37 here, as well as the other Moscow medallists Blessing Okagbare (6.76) and Ivana Spanovic (6.73).
World champion high jumper Bohdan Bondarenko was also in action and, having won with a clearance of 2.33m, he failed in an effort to beat Javier Sotomayor's 20-year-old world record of 2.45.
There was a stirring duel in the women's 5,000m between a pair of Ethiopian greats, Meseret Defar surging past Tirunesh Dibaba in the home straight.
It was a rare clash between the duo outside a major championship and world and Olympic 10,000m champion Dibaba led at the bell.
But the world and Olympic 5,000m champion Defar was poised on her shoulder and passed her great rival with 70m to go, eventually winning in 14 minutes 32.83 seconds.
