KINGSTON, Jamaica (CMC) – Usain Bolt shrugged off a shock defeat to Yohan Blake in the men’s 100 metres final on Friday night to coast into the semi-finals of the 200 metres at the Jamaica Olympic Trials here yesterday. Running at the National Stadium just hours after being stunned by Blake, the 25-year-old showed no signs of the heavy defeat as he jogged to 21.21 seconds in the opening heat.
Ainsley Waugh finished second in 21.22 seconds while Dexter McKenzie was third in 21.36.
Blake, who on Friday night clocked a lightning world-leading 9.75 seconds to beat Bolt, also eased through to the 200m semis by winning heat two in a time of 21.43, and he was followed home by Ryan Shields (21.59) and Triston Walker (21.70).
Bolt is the defending Olympic and World champion but Blake is expected to threaten after his personal best 19.26 seconds in Brussels last September which was the second fastest ever time in history.
While attention was centred on the Racers Track Club duo, former CARIFTA and Pan American Junior champion Nickel Ashmeade sped to the fastest time in the preliminary round as he won heat three in 20.57 seconds.
Rasheed Dwyer was second in 20.70 seconds while Kenroy Anderson was third in 20.71.
The 200m semi-finals were scheduled to be run off at 20:30hrs (21:30hrs Eastern Caribbean time) last night, with the final scheduled for 19:20hrs tonight.