Jamaican superstar, Usain Bolt, overcame the doubters and a semi-final hiccup when he powered past American rival, Justin Gatlin, in the closing stages to win the blue riband 100 metres gold for a record ninth world championship title.
Bolt, whose career took off seven years ago at the same Bird’s Nest stadium at the Olympics, overcame modest form last season and earlier this year, plus a stumble in the semi, for victory in 9.79 seconds.
Season leader Gatlin took silver in 9.80 while countryman Trayron Bromell and Canadian youngster Andre de Grasse shared bronze with 9.92 each and identical 9.911 on the thousands countback.
“That still was not the best, I still stumbled. I came out here relaxed, no stress, and brought it home,’’ Bolt said, draped in a Jamaican flag after his lap of honour.
“My aim is to be the number one until I retire. And, therefore, I am pushing and pushing myself. It is all about running the race and getting it done.
“You can call that race rusty. I could have run faster.’’
Bolt is the first athlete to get nine gold medals at world championships, moving ahead of Americans Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson, who have eight each. His overall haul at the worlds is 9-2-0 and he also has six Olympic titles.
Gatlin dominated the past and current season, running a personal best 9.74 this year and looking sharper than Bolt in the Beijing heats and semi, clocking 9.77 seconds in the latter.
The duel was been dubbed good v evil by some because Bolt is the face of athletics and the 2004 Olympic and 2005 world champion Gatlin a two-time doping offender who according to some should not be present and banned for life.
Elsewhere, Briton Jessica Ennis-Hill was on top again in her first big heptathlon since 2012 Olympic gold; Poland’s Pawel Fajdek won the men’s hammer throw; American Joe Kovacz the men’s shot put; and Spain’s Miguel Angel Lopez the men’s 20km walk.
Bolt showed his usual antics before the hyped sprint final, lifting his brows and flirting with the TV camera as the Jamaican fans defiantly sang the “let’s get together and it will be alright’’ line from Bob Marley’s song One Love.
A concentrated Gatlin rather pumped his fists and built a small lead midway through the race but Bolt roared back from behind to steal another big win which will surely earn him the nickname saviour of athletics which has been hit by various doping allegations.
Ennis-Hill returned to the top of the heptathlon order after giving birth to a son and some injury problems, taking the gold with 6,669 points after beating Canadian main rival Brianne Theisen Eaton in the concluding 800m.
Theisen Eaton had 6,554 points for silver and Latvia’s Laura Ikauniece-Admidina got bronze with 6,516 points before all competitors in the gruelling event went on their traditional lap of honour.
“This is definitely one of the greatest moments in my career, to come back and win here in Beijing is amazing,’’ Ennis-Hill said.
“To come away with the gold, I don’t think we could quite believe that it has happened.’’
Fajdek lived up to his top billing as he got back-to-back hammer throw titles with 80.88 metres ahead of Tajikistan’s Dilshod Nazarov, who won silver on countback of the second best attempt over another Pole, Wojciech Nowicki as both had a best result of 78.55m.
The season leader Kovacs denied Germany’s David Storl a third straight shot put title when he unleashed a massive put of 21.93m in the fifth round. Storl had 21.74m in the same round for silver and O’Davne Richards got bronze with a Jamaican record 21.69m.
In the morning, Lopez passed China’s Wang Zhen with two kilometres to go for 20km race walk gold in a personal best 1:19.14 hours. Wang trailed by 15 seconds and Benjamin Thorne took a surprise bronze for Canada, 43 seconds off the pace in a national record 1:19:57 hours.
“This the best moment of my life,’’ Lopez said. “It was a tactical race but I stayed calm … The course was difficult and complicated, plus the heat.’’
In preliminary action, two-time world and Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica stole the show with her hair dyed green and a few daisies stuck into them. She then dominated the 100m heats together with American Tori Bowie as both clocked 10.88 seconds.
The men’s 400m heats produced fast times as well with Saudi Arabia’s Yousef Ahmed Masrahi and Jamaica’s Rusheen McDonald clocking 43.93 seconds for an Asian and national record, respectively.
American holder LaShawn Merritt and Olympic champion Kirani James of Grenada also advanced.
Olympic and former world champion David Rudisha of Kenya easily advanced into the 800m final, and so did Ethiopian world record holder Genzebe Dibaba in the 1,500m.
Monday’s finals are the women’s 100m, 10,000m and triple jump and the men’s 3,000m steeplechase and pole vault.
