DOHA: Justin Gatlin (L) of the United States sprints to win the 100m race in the Diamond League meeting at the Suhaim bin Hamad Stadium.—AFP

DOHA: Justin Gatlin sent a message to Usain Bolt on Friday — both with his legs and his mouth.

Gatlin lived up to the pre-season hype by winning the 100 metres in a world-leading 9.74 seconds at the opening Diamond League meeting of the season on Friday, a personal-best time and a new meet record for Doha to serve notice to Bolt ahead of the world athletics championships in Beijing in August.

“That was for him [Bolt],” Gatlin said. “I just wanted to go out and put down a good time. I know I had to go out and make a statement tonight. That’s what my coach told me to do.”

In a sizzling night’s action Mo Farah suffered a rare loss, to Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet over 3,000m, Pedro Pichardo and Christian Taylor joined triple jump’s exclusive 18-metre club and Jasmin Stowers continued her heady rise in the 100m hurdles.

As always, however, the 100m was the race everyone wanted to watch, with the big question being whether 33-year-old Gatlin would start this season in the form he finished the last where he posted six of the year’s seven fastest times.

The twice-banned doper wasted no time in answering as he was first out of the blocks and clear by halfway, punching the air after clocking the world leading time and leaving second-place American Mike Rodgers trailing by more than two metres in 9.96.

Keston Bledman of Trinidad and Tobago was third in 10.01.

Jamaican Bolt remains the favourite to retain his world title in Beijing later this year but knows he will have to be right at the top of his game and fully fit to hold off the challenge of the 2004 Olympic champion.

“It was a magical night for me,” Gatlin said. “Doha is a great place for me and with that performance I put out a statement.”

Double world and Olympic distance champion Farah was hoping to do the same in the 3,000m and looked in control until just after the bell.

However, the Briton, who broke the world indoor two-mile record earlier this year, struggled over the equivalent distance in Doha.

When Ethiopian duo Gebrhiwet and Yomif Kejelcha burst past him, Farah was unable to hold them off and, although he clawed his way back into contention on the home straight, he finished second to clear winner Gebrhiwet.

“It’s an early start (to the season), but I am a bit disappointed to finish second. It was hard, it was basically a championship race,” Farah told reporters. “Congratulations to Hagos, he did well, but at the same time I don’t think I am kind of ready yet.”

Fans alongside the triple jump pit were treated to a memorable night as Cuba’s Pichardo soared to 18.06 metres with his third jump, making him the third-best triple-jumper ever behind Kenny Harrison and Jonathan Edwards.

There was more to come, however, as Taylor flew to 18.04 with his final jump of the night — becoming only the fourth man to clear 18 metres.

Fellow American Stowers showed she’s a rising star by winning the 100 hurdles in a personal-best 12.35 seconds, a new Diamond League record.

Olympic champion Sally Pearson and 2014 Diamond Race winner Dawn Harper-Nelson were both outside the top three.

The 23-year-old Stowers has improved her personal-best three times in 2015 after 12.40 and 12.39 performances previously this year. The latest time matched Pearson’s winning mark at the Olympics.

“I was really nervous coming in,” said Stowers, who was drawn next to Pearson and pulled away from the Aussie through the last half of the race. Pearson was fourth and Harper-Nelson last after crashing into a hurdle.

Meanwhile, Allyson Felix won in Doha for an 11th time after victory in the 200 metres. The remarkable American, a four-times Olympic champion and eight-times world champion eased through the event in a meeting record time of 21.98.

The first race of the night was the men’s 400m hurdles, won by 2005 world champion, Bershawn Jackson. The 32-year-old American won in a time of 48.09 and shouted to the crowd: “I’m back, baby!”

Like Farah, some other middle and long-distance runners struggled: 800m world champion Mohammed Aman was ninth in a race won by Djibouti’s Ayanleh Souleiman.

The battle between Abebe Aregawi and Sifan Hassan didn’t materialize in the women’s 1,500, with Hassan second behind Ethiopia’s teenage prospect Dawit Seyaum. Aregawi was seventh.

Greece’s Konstantinos Filippidis cleared 5.75 in the pole vault, grabbing his chance after world-record holder Renaud Lavillenie withdrew in the week with a shoulder injury.

Tianna Bartoletta of the US won the long jump with 6.99 meters, but only after one of a couple of glitches on the night with the technology.

It was announced that Lorraine Ugen had set a British record with 7.10 metres, only for organizers to say more than 10 minutes later that was a mistake.

The Diamond League continues in Shanghai, China on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play