Tyson Gay ran the second fastest 100-metre time this year on Thursday, clocking 9.79 seconds to win at the Athletissima Diamond League meet.
Only Gay’s world-leading 9.75 to take the U.S. Nationals title has been faster in this world championships season, just five weeks before the main event in Moscow.
Usain Bolt, the Olympic champion and world record holder, has a season’s best so far of 9.94 set at the Jamaican nationals last month.
“I am happy with 9.79,” said Gay, the 2007 world champion. “The weather wasn’t great tonight. The time still ended up OK. These are preparation stages for Moscow.”
The 30-year-old Gay reacted fast to the starting gun yet only pulled away from former world record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica in the final 40 metres.
Powell clocked his season’s best time of 9.88 — bettered only by Gay in 2013 — to finish second, while American Michael Rodgers was third in 9.96.
Veteran Kim Collins, the 2003 world champion from St. Kitts and Nevis, set a personal best aged 37 of 9.97 to place fourth.
The standout performance on a cool and breezy evening was produced by high jumper Bohdan Bondarenko, who threatened the 20-year-old world record set by Javier Sotomayor of Cuba.
Bondarenko cleared a world season-leading height of 2.41 metres — five centimetres better than his previous best set last Sunday at Birmingham, England — before taking aim at Sotomayor’s hallowed 2.45 mark. With the bar set at 2.46, Bondarenko only just failed at his first of three unsuccessful attempts.
David Oliver timed 13.03 in the 110 hurdles, leading an American sweep of the first four places. World champion Jason Richardson ran his season-best of 13.20 to place second.