LAUSANNE (Switzerland), July 11: American sprint champion Tyson Gay overcame cold and blustery conditions on Tuesday to put in another fiery performance in the 200 metres.
Gay, the newly-crowned national champion in both the 100 and 200 metres, shrugged off the cool conditions at Lausanne's Athletissima Super Grand Prix meeting to finish in 19.78 seconds, ahead of second-placed Jamaican Usain Bolt (20.11).
The 24-year-old from Kentucky, who is planning a world record attempt in the 100 metres in Sheffield, England, this weekend, was just 0.14 seconds off his personal best despite temperatures more suited to figure skating.
“It was cold but once I got in the blocks I just blocked it from my mind,” said Gay who had complained of a slight knee injury before the meeting.
“I was more surprised at my time than at winning the race because I am not 100 per cent right now. But I didn't think about the knee or anything. I just tried to run as hard as I could.”
Gay's biggest international rival, Asafa Powell, was in limited action on Tuesday with the Jamaican 100-metre world record holder competing only in the 4x100 relay as he recovered from a groin injury.
Powell helped Jamaica to a narrow win over Britain, running the final leg to snatch victory by 0.03 seconds.
China's Xiang Liu, who suffered a rare defeat at last Friday's Paris Golden League meeting, bounced back to claim the 110-metre hurdles in 13.01 seconds.
Though never looking likely to break the world record he set here last year, Liu did enough to see off a late challenge from America's Anwar Moore who crossed the line 0.11 seconds back.
Michelle Perry maintained her strong run of form in the 100-metre hurdles.
The reigning world champion, one of four athletes still vying for the Golden League jackpot, posted a time of 12.60 seconds to finish 0.02 seconds ahead of Sweden's Susanna Kallur.
Russia's Yuri Bozakovskiy and Jamaica's Veronica Campbell were among the favourites who struggled on Tuesday.
Bozakovskiy, the Olympic 800 metres champion, had to settle for second place behind Kenyan teenager David Rudisha.
Campbell, the Olympic 200 metres champion and holder of the year's best time over 100 metres, was then bested by America's Torri Edwards.
Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva meanwhile had to make do with just one win after entering both the triple and long jump events.
The reigning Olympic long jump champion and two time former triple jump world champion clinched the triple jump easily enough –leaping 14.47 metres to beat Slovenia's Marija Sestak by 21 centimetres.
She had to settle for third in the long jump however, with Swedish world and Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft grabbing victory with a 6.84 metre clearance.