Gatlin cruises to 9.75 Diamond League win
ROME, Italy (AFP) — American Justin Gatlin cruised to victory in the men’s 100 metres at the Rome Diamond League meet on Thursday.
Gatlin, the 2004 Olympic champion who served a four-year doping ban in 2006-2010 for using testosterone, stopped the clock at 9.75sec to match the seventh-fastest time in history at the distance.
Gatlin last month clocked the fastest time of the year, 9.74, in Doha — a performance that earned the American sprinter a new sponsorship deal with sportswear giant Nike, who ditched him in 2006 after he tested positive for the second time in his career.
France’s Jimmy Vicaut was second in a season’s best of 9.98, a time matched by American Michael Rodgers who tied for second place.
The rest of the field, including Kim Collins of Saint Kitts and Nevis, finished outside the 10-sec mark.
