USAIN BOLT beat the controversial sprinter Justin Gatlin to the 100-meter title at the World Athletics Championship in Beijing in a time of 9.79 seconds yesterday.

    Bolt has been beset by a pelvic injury for much of the season and had been struggling to run under 10 seconds but managed to put all that behind him as he retained the title he won in Moscow two years ago.

    Gatlin, who has served two separate doping suspensions, had been unbeaten in his previous 28 races, a winning streak that went back two years.

    Gatlin took the silver medal and his fellow American Trayvon Brommell won bronze. China’s Su Bingtian was in 9th place in a time of 10.06 seconds.

    Earlier yesterday, Spain’s Miguel Angel Lopez beat Olympic bronze medalist and home hope Wang Zhen to win the men’s 20-kilometer race walk and deny China a gold medal.

    Wang had looked set to claim the host country’s first gold medal after bursting clear at the 13-kilometer mark.

    It was China’s second silver at the 15th world championships after Gong Lijiao finished runner-up in the women’s shot put Saturday.

    “The course was difficult and complicated, plus the heat. My last 200 meters were an incredible sensation — I remembered all the people who have helped me,” said the European champion.

    Angel Lopez timed a personal best of 1 hour, 19 minutes and 14 seconds, Wang taking silver (1:19:29) and Canada’s Benjamin Thorne claiming bronze in a national record of 1:19:57.

    Japan’s world record holder Yusuke Suzuki failed to finish, the hot gold medal favorite pulling out just after the halfway point in clear discomfort, blaming his problem on a pelvic injury.

    Round one of the women’s 100m saw all the usual favorites progress to the semifinal today.

    Jamaica’s double Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce began her quest to win an unprecedented third sprint title with a new hair-do.

    Her long mane braided and bright green, the petite Jamaican also boasted a garland of yellow flowers as she ploughed through the line in 10.88 seconds, the joint fastest qualifying along with American Tori Bowie.(SD-Agencies)