Bolt steals Paris athletics limelight

Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt stole the limelight of a high-quality Diamond League meeting on Friday, dominating the field to win the men's 200m with ease. Bolt, in just his second 200m of the season after setting a world lead of 19.86sec in Oslo last month, masterfully negotiated the curve before opening up down the home stretch to put a distance between himself and the field. The 24-year-old eased up well before the line but still managed to clock 20.03sec ahead of France's triple European champion Christophe Lemaitre (20.21) and American veteran Darvis Patton (20.59). "It was windy out there and I got cold in the delay," said the double world and Olympic sprint champion in reference to a delay of several minutes caused by a breakdown of the starters' equipment. "In the straight my legs didn't feel good, but I got through injury free." Controversial South Africans Oscar Pistorius and Caster Semenya had mixed evenings in the men's 400m and the women's 800m. Pistorius, who is a double leg amputee now cleared to run in able-bodied races, failed in his bid to get the qualifying time of 45.25sec to compete at the August 27-September 4 world championships in Daegu, South Korea, coming in fifth in 45.84sec, Christopher Brown of the Bahamas victorious. "I was hoping to do a bit better because I'm still running behind the minimum time for Daegu," said Pistorius, who uses artifical legs: springy, lightweight, J-shaped limbs called "Cheetahs". "But I think I should be pretty happy, especially being in the first lane where the curve was very tight: it wasn't an advantage for me." It was smiles for Semenya, however, after two disastrous previous outings. The world 800m champion, forced into a lay-off because of doubts over her true gender, shrugged off a sluggish first lap to win the two-lap event in 2:00.18. "It's a good feeling to win here but I expected a faster race," said Semenya. "Now I need to go back home and train hard for the world championships." Kiwi Valerie Adams scored a morale-boosting victory over fierce Belarus rival Nadezhda Ostapchuk in the women's shot put. The reigning Olympic, world and Commonwealth champion managed a meeting record of 20.78m, 29cm further than the current world indoor champ. And there were four world leads set in women's events by Germany's Christina Obergfoll (javelin, 68.01m), Ethiopian Meseret Defar (5000m, 14:29.52), Cuban Yargelis Savigne (triple jump, 14.99m) and Czech Zuzana Hejnova (400m hurdles, 53.29sec). Olympic champion and world record holder Dayron Robles snatched a dramatic victory from in-form American David Oliver in the 110m hurdles, the Cuban's lunge for the line seeing him named victor despite both men given the same time (13.09sec). Trinidad's Kelly-Ann Baptiste and Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown both dipped under 11sec in the women's 100m, the former coming up on top in a season's best of 10.91.