Bolt lights up Zurich Diamond League meet

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt had the slowest start in the field but still won the 100m at the Zurich Diamond League meet.

Jamaica's Usain Bolt as he wins the men's 100m in Zurich

Jamaica's Usain Bolt (R) eased to a comfortable 100m victory at the Diamond League meet in Zurich. (AAP)

Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt eased to yet another comfortable 100m victory at the Diamond League meet in Zurich on Thursday.

Bolt charged home in 9.90sec, beating fellow Jamaican Nickel Ashmeade and American Justin Gatlin.

Ashmeade finished in 9.94 and Gatlin in 9.96 in the 13th and penultimate Diamond League event of the season.

For once Bolt was relatively slow out of the blocks and seemed to take longer than usual to find his rhythm.

But the man with six Olympic gold medals and eight world titles to his name recovered and overtook his two rivals with 15m to go.

Earlier, Meseret Defar produced a telling sprint finish to hold off a strong challenge from fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba and win the 5,000 metres.

Defar, the world champion and double Olympic gold medallist, finished in 14min 32.83sec, with Dibaba at 14:34.82.

Dibaba, 28, the triple Olympic champion who completed the 5,000m/10,000m double in Beijing five years ago, tried to break clear too early after her sister Genzebe had upped the pace at the four-kilometre mark.

But despite covering the final 1,000m in 2:40.68, Dibaba could not shake off Defar and lost the run-in on the home straight when Defar kicked for the line.

The victory gives Defar a 15-11 head-to-head advantage over her arch-rival in 5,000m contests.


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Source: AAP


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