(REUTERS)-Usain Bolt celebrated his return to China for the first time since the 2008 Olympics with a comfortable victory in the 200 metres at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting.
The Olympic and world sprint champion raced ahead by the halfway stage and crossed the line 10 metres clear of the field in 19.76 seconds but his time was well shy of his world mark of 19.19.
The 23-year-old Jamaican, who ran the fastest 100 metres of the year (9.86) in Daegu, South Korea on Wednesday, was followed over the line by Americans Angelo Taylor and Ryan Bailey in second and third.
“For me tonight was definitely a good run. I felt good. I felt all right,” the 100m and 200m world record holder said.
“Here it was kind of chilly and it was windy and a negative wind… But I felt good overall and that’s a good thing.
“I didn’t think of posing (to celebrate). I did it so much in Korea I guess I was kind of tired of doing it.”
The biggest name in world athletics, Bolt was making his debut in the new 14-leg elite Diamond League circuit after skipping the opening meeting in Doha earlier this month.
Carmelita Jeter recovered from a stumbling start to secure the women’s 100m race.
Jeter powered away from world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser to win by a clear three metres, clocking 11.09 seconds – well down on her own world leading 10.94 set earlier this month in Jamaica.
Evergreen Chandra Stirrup continues to prove that age does not weary her as the 38-year old Bahamas athlete completed the podium in third.
“I wasn’t expecting too much,” said Jeter.
“For this year my goal is keep healthy. It is a season of recovery, not too much pressure, not the championship season. It is just a beginning and it is much better than I expected.”
It was Jeter’s seventh win in a row since finishing third at the world championships in Berlin last year, a race won by Fraser.
“I’m disappointed,” said Fraser, who trailed home in 11.29.
“But I think that I’m somewhat okay. I have to go back to train and work much harder.”
Jeremy Wariner’s bid to reassert his dominance in the men’s 400m started with a pedestrian 45.41 victory.
The former world and Olympic champion played second fiddle to American rival LaShawn Merritt in Beijing and Berlin but following his controversial and embarrassing two-year doping ban, Wariner is ready to reassume his crown.
American rival David Neville claimed second while Great Britain’s Michael Bingham, who made his breakthrough by reaching the final at last year’s Worlds, completed the podium with an impressive early season showing.
American Lashinda Demus blitzed the field to claim the women’s 400m hurdles in 53.34 – the fastest time in the world this year.
Jamaican Olympic and world champion Melanie Walker was a distant fifth while Russia’s Natalya Antyukh and Poland’s Anna Marta Jesien rounded out the top three.
Olympic and world shot put champion Valerie Vili settled for second after Nadezhda Ostapchuk unleashed a world leading 20.70 metre throw to win by nearly a clear metre.
Hungary’s Zoltan Kovago claimed the men’s discus in a season’s best 69.69m while a world leading 14.89m secured Kazakhstan’s Olga Rypakova the women’s triple jump, ahead of Cuba’s Yargelis Savigne and Russia’s Nadezhda Bazhenova-Alekhina.
One-lap hurdles specialist Angelo Taylor clocked a new personal best to finish second in 20.34 while fellow American Ryan Bailey completed the podium.
Great Britain’s Jenny Meadows confirmed her place among the medal frontrunners for this year’s European Championship and Commonwealth Games with a second-place finish in the 800m.
Meadows – the bronze medallist at last year’s World Championships in Berlin – allowed Janet Jepkosegei to move clear down the final straight, losing by just over a metre as the Kenyan crossed the line in 2.01.06.
Jamaica’s Kenia Sinclair, who won in Deagu in midweek and holds the world leading time, faded in the closing metres to finish third while Olympic champion Pamela Jelimo was well out of contention.
Gladys Kipkemoi led home a Kenyan 1-2-3 in the women’s 3000m steeplechase in a world leading 9.16.82 time while Poland’s Sylwester Bednarek claimed the men’s high jump on count back after clearing 2.24 metres at his first attempt.