Prague, Des Moines: Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt announced on Sunday he was pulling out of the June 27 Golden Spike event in Ostrava in the Czech Republic, choosing instead to stay at home for training.

“I want to apologise to my fans in Ostrava, but this year I will not be coming to the Golden Spike meeting,” Bolt said in a statement offered by the organisers.

“Instead I will stay in Jamaica with my coach for an extra week to focus on training before coming to Europe,” said Bolt, who won the 100-metre title at the Jamaican championships last Friday, clocking 9.94 seconds.

In Ostrava, Bolt was originally scheduled to run the 4x100m relay together with another Jamaican star Yohan Blake who pulled out earlier.

Bolt, Blake, Michael Frater and Nesta Carter set a 4x100m relay world record time of 36.84secs at the London Olympics last year.

Countryman Asafa Powell is still listed to compete in the Ostrava relay.

The event’s star list also comprises Russia’s Yelena Isinbaeva (pole vault), Australia’s Sally Pearson (100m hurdles), Russia’s Ivan Ukhov (high jump) and New Zealand’s Valerie Adams (shot put).

Meanwhile, Brianna Rollins served notice she is a force to be reckoned with by matching the fourth-fastest 100m hurdles time in history at the US Athletics Championships on Saturday.

Running in her first US outdoor nationals, Rollins booked a berth at the World Championships by posting a dominant victory in a time of 12.26 seconds.

The fastest time the event has seen since 1992 immediately caught the eye of world and Olympic champion Sally Pearson of Australia.

“Looks like I am bringing my A++ game to worlds this year with Brianna Rollins just running 12.26,” Pearson said on Twitter.

Only Bulgarian Yordanka Donkova, who set the world record of 12.21 in 1988, and compatriot Ginka Zagorcheva have run faster.

“I just feel so overwhelmed, so emotional,” Rollins said. “It is so amazing.”

The 21-year-old, who until turning professional this month was competing for Clemson University, improved on her own season-leading time of 12.39.

She ran under that in both the heats and semi-finals, but both times were wind-aided. Rollins finally got a legal wind of 1.2 meters per second in the final and flew to an American record.

Queen Harrison was a distant second in 12.43 and Nia Ali third in 12.48 to claimed the final berth for the World Championships in Moscow on August 10-18.

Lolo Jones’ hard luck in big events continued. The hometown favourite, who endured disappointment at the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, was fifth.

Dawn Harper, who has a bye into the worlds as the Diamond League 100m hurdles winner last season, opted out of the semi-finals and final.

Rollins, whose best 100m hurdles time prior to this season was 12.70, has now established herself as a contender against the likes of Harper and Pearson.

It’s heady stuff for an athlete who only took up running in high school “because someone told me I was fast.”

She opted for hurdles “because I thought it was interesting and fun to do.”