Bolt in 400m victory

KINGSTON – Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt launched his 2010 campaign Saturday with an impressive 400m victory at the Camperdown Classic.

Bolt, the world and Olympic champion at both 100m and 200m and in the 4x100m relay, ran from lane four and clocked 45.86sec to break the meet record. The lanky sprinter, who ran world records of 9.58sec and 19.19 for his individual sprint double at last year’s Berlin World Championships, got off to a very fast start. He was ahead by metres when he entered the final straight and had time to ease down across the finish line for a comfortable victory.Bolt said he didn’t feel ‘how I wanted to,’ but was encouraged by the time. ‘To run 45 seconds is a good sign,’ he said. Last year Bolt opened his season with a 400m in the same meeting, where he clocked 46.35sec. Bolt will next race at the Gibson Relays on February 27, also in Kingston. * Meanwhile, Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina won a shock Olympic gold medal on Saturday in the women’s 7.5 km biathlon sprint, seeing off silver winner and favourite Magdalena Neuner of Germany.Marie Dorin of France claimed bronze.Russian-born Kuzmina, 25 and ranked only 28 in the world, crossed the line in 19min 55.6sec, stunning Neuner, who came in 1.5sec adrift after a tense dash for the line while Dorin finished at 10.9sec. Anna Boulygina of Russia was fourth ahead of Kazakh Elena Khrustaleva. – Nampa-AFP