Mike Rodgers tops Golden Grand Prix 100m

Tokyo: Mike Rodgers of the United States won the men’s 100 metres on Sunday at the Golden Grand Prix, an IAAF World Challenge meet.

Rodgers clocked 10.19 seconds to finish ahead of Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas, who finished in 10.24. Yoshihide Kiryu, a 17-year-old Japanese sprinter, was third in 10.40 seconds on a windy day at Tokyo’s National Stadium.

“I felt the wind when I came out. I was like, ‘Oh my God’,” said Rodgers. “But it was a good run. After a 13-hour flight, I wasn’t expecting anything big today. Just get the win.”

Rodgers got this season off to a promising start, clocking 10.04 into a headwind at the Mt SAC Relays and running a strong relay leg at the Penn Relays. Rodgers took silver in the 60 metres at the 2010 world indoor championships and is trying to get back on track after a rough year in 2012. Battling to recover from a fractured foot, he failed to make the London Olympic team by 0.01 seconds.

Olympic champion Anna Chicherova of Russia won the women’s high jump with a leap of 1.95 metres.

Poland’s Kamila Stepaniuk and Kazakhstan’s Marina Aitova both cleared 1.92, with Stepanuik placing second due to having fewer misses.

The host nation won two events as 2009 world championships bronze medalist Yukifumi Murakami easily won the javelin with a throw of 81.16 metres and Seito Yamamoto cleared 5.50 to win in the pole vault.