Paris: Usain Bolt comfortably won the 200 metres at the Paris Diamond League meeting on Friday despite Christophe Lemaitre running a season's best of 20.21 seconds.
On a newly laid Stade de France track based on the 2008 Beijing Olympic version where the Jamaican first took the world by storm, Bolt triumphed in 20.03 to deny his French rival and boost his preparations for next month's world championships.
Showman Bolt, hiding his face behind his hands like a Paris mime artist, was welcomed into the stadium like a rock star with a string of pumping tunes warming up the crowd and putting his opponents including Lemaitre in the shade.
The 100 and 200 world record holder then asked for silence as he began to focus, but was forced to wait for several minutes for the high jump and technical issues before blasting off.
"It was alright. There was a bit of a delay at the start," he told the crowd in a slightly frustrated voice.
Jeremy Wariner's preparations for the August 27 to September 4 world championships in Daegu, South Korea took a blow when the American former Olympic champion could finish only fourth in the men's 400 won by Chris Brown of the Bahamas in 44.94.
Start of good things
"I hope this is the start of good things for me," Brown said. "Finally I executed my race well. This win means before Daegu I need to go back home and train twice as hard as before."
Wariner had never lost in Paris.
"Blade runner" Oscar Pistorius, the double amputee still searching for a qualifying time for Daegu, was fifth in 45.84 and is some way off the 45.25 he needs with two races left.
Bespectacled world record holder Dayron Robles of Cuba just edged the 100m hurdles from American rival David Oliver after a false start in the northern outskirts of Paris while Amine Laalou of Morocco prevailed in the 1,500.
Caster Semenya showed she was finding form just in time for the defence of her world title by winning the 800 ahead of Halima Hachlaf of Morocco in an albeit modest time of 2:00.18.
The South African has shrugged off the furore over questions about her gender and, following some poor times during her comeback last year, she looks to be enjoying her running again.
Under cloudy skies at the eighth Diamond League meeting of the season, Czech Republic's Zuzana Hejnova won the women's 400 hurdles after edging out Jamaican Kaliese Spencer.
A stiff breeze did not stop home favourite Mahiedine Mekhissi from surging up the pack to take glory in the men's 3,000 steeplechase to the delight of the crowd.
As hordes of children in the two-thirds full stands banged their clapper boards, Trinidad's Kelly-Ann Baptiste powered to victory in the women's 100 sprint with a season's best of 10.91 to deny former world champion Veronica Campbell-Brown.
Meseret Defar ran the fastest time this year (14.29:52) in the 5,000 and had enough energy for a lap of honour.
In the women's field events, Germany's Christina Obergfoell and Cuban Yargelis Savigne managed the best distances so far this year in the javelin and the triple jump respectively while New Zealand's Valerie Adams triumphed in the shot put.
Lemaitre
Christophe Lemaitre's name translates as "the master" and although he was eclipsed in his home race by sprint king Usain Bolt, the Frenchman feels he is getting closer to beating the giant Jamaican.
Lemaitre ran a season's best of 20.21 seconds in finishing second to world and Olympic champion Bolt (20.03) in the 200 metres at Friday's Paris Diamond League meeting, amid the roar of nearly 50,000 fans inside the Stade de France.
"I'm getting closer to Bolt. Last year I finished way further back than that," he told reporters.
"This shows I'm improving and that I'm imposing myself with the world's best. My next race will be the Monaco meeting [July 22] in the 100m again against Bolt."
Dubbed the fastest white man on the planet, the European champion would have loved to pull off a major shock in front of his adoring public.
"I'm disappointed with not beating the French national record (20.16) and not running under 20 seconds. I perhaps put too much rhythm in the curve, not using big enough steps."