Bolt stormed to men's 100 amid heavy rain

MOSCOW - World record holder Usain Bolt claims the men's 100 world title amid a heavy rain to light up the Luzhniki Stadium at the 2013 World Championships here in Moscow on Sunday.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica poses with his national flag after winning the men's 100 metres final during the IAAF World Athletics Championships at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow August 11, 2013.[Photo/Agencies]

The reigning Olympic champion, who was disqualified for fault start in the 100m final in Daegu worlds two years ago, clocked a personal season best of 9.77 seconds to seal the gold. The winning mark fell far behind his world record of 9.58, but was good enough for Bolt as well as his country which has been facing a credit crisis following a series of doping scandals before the worlds.

The six-time Olympic champion started with a mediocre reaction time of 0.163 seconds and pulled clear to shrug off a strong charge from Justin Gatlin of United States, blazing through the finish line in 9.77.

"For me today, it was just fun. It was not a revenge for Daegu, I just came here to win this title," said the 26-year-old Jamaican. "I wanted to do a better time but was not able to because of the weather - this is just one of those days. Not 'singing in the rain ', but 'running in the rain' tonight! My race was not perfect and the start was not perfect neither."

"I am feeling good, just a little bit tired. I need some rest. I continue to work on my aim to become a legend by collecting gold medals and athlete of the year titles; and the 200m and the 4x1 is yet to come," said an ambitious and confident Bolt.

Gatlin also clocked a season best of 9.85 to finished second, while Nesta Carter, also from Jamaica, finished third in 9.95.

"I feel good. If I'd run a perfect race and got beaten, I'd have been concerned, but I didn't run a perfect race. I got a little overexcited and didn't execute the last 30 metres; but I have time to correct that, I have a couple more races coming up. I 'm a competitor at heart. Most importantly, I have a 4x100 Relay to run here in Moscow," said Gatlin.

"he rain actually got me excited. We saw the lightning on the horizon when we were at the warm-up track and started thinking they would postpone the race. But they wanted an epic race in rain and they got it!"