Bolt shatters world record in 100 meters

BERLIN (AP) — Usain Bolt saved the celebration for after the finish line this time and showed that, yes, he can keep breaking that world record.

He obliterated it, in fact.

Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.58 seconds Sunday at world championships, turning his showdown against Tyson Gay into a rout and putting to rest the questions that went unanswered last time he set the record — at his showboating Olympic run of 9.69 seconds.

Yes, he can do better when he goes all out the whole way. Yes, he can break 9.6.

It was the biggest change in the record since electronic time was introduced in 1968. It came very close to the 9.55-second time that an American professor said Bolt would have run in Beijing had he run all out in the Olympic 100 finals.

Under ideal conditions and facing the toughest competition possible, Bolt blew away his own world record by .11 seconds on the one-year anniversary of the last world record. Gay, meanwhile, set the American record by finishing in 9.71, a time that would have been a world record 12 months and one day ago, but was an afterthought instead.

Asafa Powell of Jamaica took bronze in 9.84.

In Beijing, Bolt was coasting after 70 meters, but in Berlin, Gay pushed him as far as he could — to no avail. Gay stayed with him over the first part of the race but once Bolt unfurled that huge stride of his, there was no contest.

Tags: track and field, 100 meters, world record, sports, other, usain, bolt