Bolt, 29, ran 9.81 seconds in his final Olympics to replicate his success at Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Advertisement
Markham’s Andre De Grasse earned Canada its first medal in the men’s 100 metres in 20 years.
But the Jamaican surged through from 60 metres to pass Gatlin and comfortably win his seventh Olympic gold.
Bolt is attempting to win a “triple-triple” – gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4×100 meter relay at three straight Olympics.
Two stand-out performances came from Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and South African Wayde Van Niekerk who shocked the world with his record performance in the men’s 400m men’s final race. The 34-year-old American won the 100m gold medal at the Athens 2004 Games but later served a four-year ban for doping.
Bolt started pulling away from Gatlin with about 30 meters left. “Two more to go”.
Bolt enjoyed overwhelming support from the Rio crowd while Gatlin was roundly jeered.
He insisted his rivals respected him and urged the critics to get to know him, telling BBC Radio 5 live: “I have worked hard to get on the podium”.
“I am just staying focused, I went out there and executed my race in the first round and cruised to finish line”, Gatlin said. “He is a fun, cool guy”. There is no bad blood between us.
“When it comes down to it I have given him his closest races all his career”.
“I’m a competitor, he’s a competitor and he has pushed me to be the athlete that I am today”.
“After the semifinals I felt extremely good and, as I said, I wanted to run faster”, he told BBC Sport.
Advertisement
“We work 365 days a year to be here for nine seconds”, he said.
