Racing giant... Usain Bolt storms to victory in the men’s 200 metres final in Moscow yesterday.Racing giant... Usain Bolt storms to victory in the men’s 200 metres final in Moscow yesterday.

Usain Bolt completed yet another crushing sprint double yesterday and hardly needed to extend himself to achieve it as he took his third successive world 200 metres title in the year’s fastest time of 19.66 seconds – easing down.

Fellow Jamaican Warren Weir improved on his Olympic bronze by taking silver in a personal best 19.79 from lane eight while Curtis Mitchell won bronze for the US in 20.04, just preventing another Jamaican podium sweep as he beat Nickel Ashmeade by a hundredth of a second.

Bolt, the world record holder with his 19.19, won the 100 metres last weekend having completed the sprint double twice at the Olympics and also in the 2009 worlds.

He was always in command from lane four and halfway round the opening bend he loomed over diminutive British teenager Adam Gemili in lane five like an ocean-going liner swamping a dinghy, before disappearing into the distance.

After a slow start to the season when he was hampered by injury, Bolt has been on an upward curve in the last few weeks and his 19.73 in Paris six weeks ago was the fastest time of the year before yesterday’s race.

American Tyson Gay, who ran 19.74 in June and was the last man to beat Bolt in a global 200 when he won the 2007 worlds, was unable to challenge him again in Moscow having failed a doping test.

After winning the 100 metres gold Bolt will hope to complete another hat-trick in the 4x100m relay today, when gold would draw him level with American trio Allyson Felix, Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson with eight world titles.

Over the longer distances, Meseret Defar added yet another global 5,000 metres gold to her bulging collection when she won the world title with a textbook performance, aided by her Ethiopian team-mates.

A pedestrian first half of the race briefly suggested some of the fast-finishers might be able to make a fight of it but with four laps to go Defar’s team-mate Almaz Ayana put her foot down and immediately spread the field.

By the bell it was just the two Ethiopians and Kenya’s Mercy Cherono and Ayana played her role of domestique to perfection, towing Defar to the 200m mark when the favourite blasted clear to win in 14:50.19

Cherono came on to take silver in 14.51.22 ahead of Ayana 14.51.33.

New kid on the block Brianna Rollins dethroned Australia’s 100 metres hurdles queen Sally Pearson to win gold yesterday.

American Rollins, 22 today, was last out of the blocks but had drawn level with defending champion Pearson by the ninth barrier and edged ahead of the Australian over the last to win in 12.44 seconds.

Pearson, who was plagued by a hamstring injury earlier in the season, finished second in 12.50. Britain’s Tiffany Porter got a great start but slipped back to finish third in 12.55.

The Moscow crowd had something to cheer about after Russia ended the United States’ domination of the women’s 4x400m relay with a superb display to take the host nation’s first track gold medal on the penultimate day of the championships.

The US led early on but a superb second leg by Tatyana Firova had the Russians in front and the crowd roaring.

Kseniya Ryzhova drove home the advantage and individual bronze medallist Antonina Krivoshapka held off a determined run by Francena McCorory to take gold in 3:20.19.

The US took silver in 3:20.41 while individual champion Christine Ohuruogu brought Britain home for bronze in 3:22.61.

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