TYSON GAY produced a blistering display to lower his American 100 metres record at the Shanghai Grand Prix.
Gay got out of his blocks slowly but recovered to roar ahead of Asafa Powell and improve his mark to 9.69 seconds with his Jamaican rival second in 9.85 and fellow American Darvis Patton third with a time of 9.89.
The winning performance equalled the second-fastest of all time which Usain Bolt achieved when winning the Olympic gold medal in Beijing last year.
Gay’s previous US record of 9.71 was achieved when winning World Championships silver behind Bolt last month, who clocked a world record of 9.58 on that occasion.
The former world champion showed no signs of the groin injury which has troubled him this season and his display clearly suggests some exciting head-to-heads are on the cards with Bolt in 2010.
Carmelita Jeter was in even better form.
Just seven days after posting a world-leading 100m time for the year of 10.67 to win the last World Athletics Final in Thessalonika, the American who won bronze at last month’s Worlds reduced it to 10.64 when finishing ahead of Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown and Chandra Sturrup of the Bahamas, who clocked 10.89 and 11.03.
China’s Liu Xiang posted the same time of 13.15 as Terrence Trammell in the 110m hurdles, but the American was declared the winner.
