DOHA, May 13 Reuters - Olympic silver medallist Francis Obikwelu got his revenge over champion Justin Gatlin by winning the 100 metres at the Qatar Super Grand Prix on Friday.
The Portuguese won in 10.05 seconds ahead of Olympic 200 metres champion Shawn Crawford (10.14), who finished with the same time as Gatlin but edged him out in a photo-finish.
I'm not at all surprised with this result,'' said Obikwelu. It’s a sweet revenge for me, for my defeat at Athens. I’ve been training very hard and it paid off here today.
The Nigerian-born athlete said he was not under any pressure to race against Gatlin, who beat him in Athens after Obikwelu only entered the 100 metres as a warm-up for the longer sprint.
I never take pressure. I'm always cool and I know how to run, be it against Gatlin or anybody else,'' he said. Gatlin insisted there was no need to panic so early in the season and expressed confidence that he would improve in time for the world championships in Helsinki in August. There’s no need to panic. This is just a build-up to my new season. There is no need to read more into this race,’’ he said.
I'll be racing at Prefontaine on June 4 and there are many more races to follow before Helsinki,'' added Gatlin referring to the IAAF Classic grand prix eventand the worlds. Gatlin's fellow American Crawford was very happy with his second place. It’s good result in what was the first race of the season for me,’’ he said. I'm satisfied with my performance. This race told me what to do for the next,’’ added Crawford, who skipped last week’s Grand Prix in Osaka.
The men’s 110 metres hurdles was won by European champion Stanislavs Olijars with a year’s best of 13.11 seconds ahead of Olympic silver medallist American Terrence Trammell (13.18).
Qatar’s 3000 metres steeplechase world champion Saif Saeed Shaheen’s made a brave attempt to establish a new record in a non-Olympic event, the 2000 metres steeplechase.
The Kenyan-born athlete failed by a whisker as he clocked 5:14.53 against the 15-year-old mark of 5:14.42 set by Kenya’s Julius Kiriuki in Riveto, Italy, in 1990.