KAWASAKI: Veteran American sprinter Justin Gatlin fended off the challenge of a host of Japanese hopes when he won the men’s 100 metres at the Golden Grand Prix on Sunday, crossing the line first in a pedestrian 10.28 seconds.

The Rio Olympic silver medallist started slowly but rallied to dip ahead of Asuka Cambridge, who finished 0.03 seconds behind the American, while another Japanese, Shuhei Tada, came third in 10.35.

Any hopes of clocking a fast time were scuppered by a 1.2-metre headwind at the Todoroki Stadium, although Gatlin said he was pleased with his performance in testing conditions.

“Glad to open up my season here with a good time,” the 35-year-old said. “I’ve been a little bit injured, and haven’t been able to train as hard as I want to, but I’ve been working on my finish and it helped out today.”

Aaron Brown of Canada won the men’s 200 with a time of 20.62, edging Dedric Dukes of the United States by 0.09. Kenji Fujimitsu of Japan was third in 20.93.

London Olympic bronze medallist Timothy Kitum took gold in the 800m with a time of 1:47.03 while Kenya’s Paul Tanui, who took silver behind Mo Farah in the 10,000m at last year’s Rio Olympics, won the 3,000m in 7:52.67.

Rio champion Thomas Rohler eased to victory in the men’s javelin, the German producing a best throw of 86.55 metres to beat Taiwan’s Huang Shih-Feng (82.57) and Czech Jaroslav Jilek (82.46).

Ivet Lalova-Collio of Bulgaria powered to victory in the women’s 100, clocking a time of 11.40 to beat Tawanna Meadows of the United States by 0.04. Tianna Bartoletta, also of the United States, was third in 11.47.

Bartoletta is the world champion in the long jump and won that event with a leap of 6.79 metres, ahead of Britain’s Shara Proctor (6.65) and Aiga Grabuste of Latvia (6.49).

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2017