Usain Bolt Sizzles on Wet, Windy Track

Neither rain nor wind, nor, well, anything, it seems, can stop Usain Bolt. Running on a wet track, into a .9 meters-per-second (mps) headwind, Bolt ran the 200 meters in 19.59 seconds at Tuesday's Athletissima 2009 in Lausanne, Switzerland. The meet was part of the IAAF World Athletics Tour.

That's the second-fastest 200 of Bolt's career, trailing only his world record 19.30 set in Beijing last year. It's also the second-fastest 200 of the season. Tyson Gay ran 19.57 in May, on a dry track with a tailwind of 1.3 meters-per-second.

Looks like we're in for some exciting action in Berlin next month when Bolt and Gay face off in the 100 and 200.

Of course, Asafa Powell hopes to insert his name into the 100-meter competition as well. He won the 100 in Lausanne in 10.07 while running into a 1.8 mps headwind. Shelly Ann Fraser won the women's 100 (11.03) to deal runner-up Carmelita Jeter (11.06) her first loss of 2009. Kerron Stewart won the women's 200 (22.73 into a 3.7 mps headwind). Beijing silver medalist Ahmed Ismail Ahmed won the men's 800 (1:44.80), while Oksana Zbrozhek won the women's race (2:01.24).

World record-holder Dayron Robles won the 110 hurdles (13.18), while Sally McLellan won the 100 hurdles in the third fastest time this year (12.59). The 400 hurdles winners were Isa Phillips (48.18) and Tiffany Williams (54.73), with 2008 Olympic champ Melaine Walker finishing fourth in the women's event (55.24).

Gelete Burka won a tight women's 1500 race in 4:00.67 with Maryam Yussuf Jamal a close second (4:01.99). Anter Zerguelaine finished first in the men's event (3:37.15). Deresse Mekonnen won the 3000 in a personal best 7:37.62.

In the jumps, 2007 world champion Yargelis Savigne won the women's triple jump with the second-longest leap of 2009, 14.91 meters (48 feet, 11 inches). Savigne owns the top six jumps of the season. Godfrey Mokoena (8.05/26-5) edged Dwight Phillips (8.03/26-4) in the men's long jump. Beijing gold medalist Steve Hooker cleared 5.75/18-10¼ to win the pole vault, while Jaroslav Baba finished first in the high jump (2.26/7-5).

Steffie Nerius out-distanced fellow German and Olympic javelin bronze medalist Christina Obergfoll for the second time in one week. Nerius threw (65.37/214-5) to defeat world record-holder Barbora Spotakova (64.38/211-2) and Obergfoll (62.31/204-5).