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Usain Bolt recovers from poor start to edge semi-final

Bolt will be competing in the upcoming Worl…

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If the Beijing organisers, not to mention his Puma backer, were hoping that Bolt would cut through the gloom with his trademark swagger they were to be disappointed.

Ghirmay Ghebreslassie became the youngest man to win the marathon at the world championships, using a late surge to take the title on a sweltering Saturday.

Jamaican sprinter and team captain Asafa Powell laughs during a press conference, Thursday, August 20, 2015, in Beijing, China. Bolt claimed victories in two 200-meter races to kick off his season but looked far from Bolt-esque in those efforts.

And everyone else should be very anxious.

Johnson-Thompson, in second place behind British teammate Jessica Ennis-Hill after the first four events, fouled out on her three long jump attempts Sunday.

“I felt safe, like, after 50 meters so I did not have to push it too much”, said Gatlin, who was.

On the track, Saturday marked another impressive outing for Gatlin, who was the fastest qualifier with a time of 9.83 seconds in the sixth heat – albeit with the help of a 2.1m/s following wind. But Gatlin is listed as a close second-favorite, at around 6-5 by several European sports books.

Bolt added that he would prove the doubters wrong yet again. It was something like that at the London Olympics, when he was less than 100 percent and entered the games following losses to teammate Yohan Blake at the Jamaican Olympic trials. Dasaolu, who ran 10.13, said: ” I just took my eye off where I was and I saw the guys come past me in the last 20m”.

Now 33, Gatlin is in the best form of his career. All four of the faster times this year were also all run by him. For Coe to say this week that the Gatlin issue makes him “queasy” is not good enough.

His sprinting feats may border on the superhuman but Usain Bolt insists he alone cannot rescue athletics from a crisis wreaked by a torrent of doping allegations. “But training is more important than competing”.

The air quality was listed as “good” by the U.S Embassy Beijing Air Quality Monitor throughout the race. The defending champion is trying for an unprecedented seventh title in Cincinnati.

UNDER SCRUTINY: All eyes in the 10,000-meter race will be on Mo Farah and Galen Rupp.

With all three competitors pretty even in the 800, the biggest rivalry at this year’s world championships could well be for silver.

In 2001 he was suspended for two years for taking banned amp-hetamines. So I’ll be all proper. Despite pleading with the judges, the red flag went up.

But the European champion, James Dasaolu, is out after appearing to deliberately ease up after 70 metres, during which time he went from first to fourth, and missed out on a fastest-loser spot by one-hundredth of a second.

It is a pleasant quirk of squeezing multiple sprint events inside nine days that the 100?metres is one of the first medals decided at a major championship.

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Gong is looking to give the host nation a strong start at the worlds with a gold medal on the opening day after she finished fifth at the Olympics in the same stadium seven years ago.

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