Bolt strikes for 100m world record at New York meeting

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

NEW YORK (AFP) — Jamaica's Usain Bolt set the 100m world record here Saturday, clocking 9.72sec at the Reebok Grand Prix athletics meeting.

Bolt, 21, lowered the record of 9.74sec set by compatriot Asafa Powell at Rieti, Italy, last September.

With a favorable wind of 1.7m/sec, Bolt finished ahead of 100m and 200m World Champion Tyson Gay of the United States (9.85) and American Darvis Patton (10.07).

Bolt, the 200m world championships silver medallist, had signalled his arrival on the 100m scene in this Olympic year in early May, when he clocked 9.76 - then the second-fastest time in history - at a meeting in Jamaica.

Bolt's performance on a night disrupted by thunderstorms and lightning, jolted a crowd of 6,490 that included a big Jamaican...