(From left) Qatar’s Femi Ogunode, Jamaica’s Asafa Powell and Justin Gatlin of the United States compete in the men’s 100 metres event at the IAAF Diamond League athletics meet in Brussels yesterday.

 

AFP/Brussels


Qatar’s Femi Ogunode was undone by a savage dip at the line by Justin Gatlin in the 100m event at yesterday’s season-ending Diamond League meet in Brussels.
However, with Gatlin withdrawing from the 200m event, the Qatari sprinter won the longer sprint for a successful outing.
Ogunode finished second in 100m but was given the same time as the American at 9.98 seconds.
Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut claimed third in 9.99sec ahead of American Mike Rodgers (10.02) and Jamaica’s Asafa Powell (10.04).
This was the third time in Ogunode’s career that he crossed the 10-second barrier, with the first two at last year’s Asian Games (9.93seconds) and this year’s Asian Championships (9.91seconds).
Recently, Ogunode had run the 100m in 10 seconds at the world championships in Beijing but that was only good enough to take him till the semifinals.
With Usain Bolt withdrawing from Brussels, Gatlin was expected to repeat his 2014 100-200m double yesterday.
In Gatlin’s absence, Ogunode improved on his second place in the 100m to claim victory in the longer sprint at the Stade King Baudouin II in an Asian record of 19.97sec ahead of Antigua’s Miguel Francis (20.22) and Jamaican Rasheed Dwyer (20.27).
Gatlin, who has served two doping bans and whose clash with Bolt in Beijing was built up by some as a symbolic victory of a clean sprinter over a drugs offender, seemed to tie up in the latter stage of the race.
But the 33-year-old, who rebounded from a first doping ban to claim 100m gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the sprint double at the 2005 worlds in Helsinki before then serving a second ban between 2006-10, showed all his experience to produce a decisive dip at the line.
There was a nervy start after Nesta Carter false-started, the Jamaican who has been part of two Olympic and three world 4x100m relay-winning teams adjudged to have rocked slightly off his blocks.
Carter’s compatriot Bolt opted not to race in the 200m at Brussels, expressing his desire to rest up before turning his attention to preparing for the 2016 Rio Olympics where he will bid to defend his “double-treble” gold haul in the 100, 200 and 4x100m relay.

RESULTS
Men’s 100m: 1. Justin Gatlin (US) 9.98; 2. Femi Ogunode (Qatar) 9.98; 3. Jimmy Vicaut (France) 9.99
Men’s 400m: 1. Renny Quow (Trinidad and Tobago) 45.29; 2. Kevin Borlee (Belgium) 45.43; 3. Peter Matthews (Jamaica) 45.74
Men’s 1500m: 1. Morhad Amdouni (France) 3:36.92; 2. Ryan Gregson (Australia) 3:37.14: 3. Samir Dahmani (France) 3:37.81
Men’s 400m Hurdles: 1. Jeffery Gibson (Bahamas) 48.72; 2. Bershawn Jackson (US) 48.76: 3. Kariem Hussein (Switzerland) 48.87
Men’s Shot Put: 1. Tomas Walsh (New Zealand) 21.39: 2. O’Dayne Richards (Jamaica) 21.37: 3. Joe Kovacs (US) 21.35
Women’s 200m: 1. Dafne Schippers (Netherlands) 22.12; 2. Allyson Felix (US) 22.22: 3. Elaine Thompson (Jamaica) 22.26
Women’s 3000m Steeplechase; 1. Habiba Ghribi (Tunisia) 9:05.36; 2. Hyvin Kiyeng Jepkemoi (Kenya) 9:10.15; 3. Sofia Assefa (Ethiopia) 9:12.63
Women’s Triple Jump: 1. Caterine Ibargueen (Colombia) 14.60; 2. Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko (Israel) 14.42; 3. Yekaterina Koneva (Russia) 14.37
Women’s Discus Throw: 1. Sandra Perkovic (Croatia) 67.50; 2. Denia Caballero (Cuba) 65.77; 3. Nadine Mueller (Germany) 62.64