Eugene, United States, Jamaica: Tyson Gay powered past teenaged challenger Trayvon Bromell to win the US 100m crown in 9.87sec on Friday and book his first trip to the World Championships since 2009.
Gay, 32 and trying to regain the sport’s summit after a one-year drugs ban, rated the triumph as perhaps the most important of his career.
“I feel like it was the toughest,” he said, noting that rising talents like Bromell were raising the stakes in US sprinting.
He credited his veteran skills with getting him through the rounds with enough left to overhaul the 19-year-old Bromell, relegating him to second in 9.96.
“He got out good, it was just one of those 10-years-of-experience, dig-down moments - I had to get him,” Gay said. “It felt good though.”
Mike Rodgers was third in 9.97 to grab the final berth on offer for the August 22-30 World Championships in Beijing.
They’ll join teammate Justin Gatlin, who has a bye into the 100m in Beijing thanks to his 2014 Diamond League title and is focusing this week on the 200m and a possible double world championships challenge to Jamaican superstar Usain Bolt.
Gay won 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at the 2007 World Championships and took 100m silver behind Bolt at the 2009 Worlds.
He missed the 2011 World Championships after a hip injury forced him out of trials, and withdrew from the 2013 World Championships in Moscow as he awaited the verdict in his doping case.
“Just being able to come back from a mistake, show the world that you can make up for the mistake - it means a lot,” Gay said.
America’s women sprinters sent a strong signal in a women’s 100m won by Tori Bowie in 10.81sec.
Bowie powered past English Gardner, who finished second in 10.86 with collegiate standout Jasmine Todd third in 10.92.
The six women under 11 seconds was a first in a US 100m final, topping the five at the 2013 championships in Des Moines. “I for sure think we made a statement to the world today,” Bowie said.
Carmelita Jeter, the 2011 world champion and three-time Olympic medallist, missed out on a Beijing berth, finishing seventh in 11.01.
The final, in a legal wind of 1.2 metres per second, followed a scintillating semi-final show in which Bowie’s wind-aided 10.72sec was the top qualifying time, ahead of Jeter’s 10.76 for second in the same heat.
Gardner had won her semi-final in 10.79, the fastest time in the world this year with a legal wind that was matched by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Jamaican trials in Kingston on Friday.
Meanwhile, Fraser-Pryce ran a world leading time of 10.79 seconds and Asafa Powell equalled his season’s best at 9.84 seconds to win the 100 metre titles at the Jamaica national trials.
Olympic and world champion Fraser-Pryce blew away a quality field including runner-up Natasha Morrison, who ran a personal best 11.03 seconds. Two-time Olympic champ Veronica Campbell-Brown was third in 11.06 seconds.
Powell lived up to expectations when he won his sixth national title and first since 2011 in a well-executed race by beating Nickel Ashmeade (9.91 seconds) and Kemar Bailey-Cole who took third in 9.97 seconds.
“I thought I executed very well tonight,” Fraser-Pryce said. “The field was good as usual. I had already qualified so it was more about executing a good race and the fact that I had missed a few races because of my hamstring. I just wanted to come out and put a solid race together.”
