Usain Bolt gave his first response to American sprinter Tyson Gay on Saturday at the Areva Diamond Leauge meet in Paris.
Bolt ran the 200 meters in 19.73 seconds, the fastest time of the year, CBCSports reported. The effort was 0.01 seconds faster than Gay's previous best at the U.S. Championships in June.
"I think I could have run the last 50 after the turn much better," Bolt was quoted as saying. "I didn't come in the straight as powerful as I used to. The last 30 meters, I was kind of, I won't say struggling, but my technique wasn't perfect.
"The time, I think I could have done better. I wanted to do better, but it's just one of those things you never get but you wish for sometimes."
Bolt still is more than a half-second off his own world record time of 19.19 seconds that he set during a meet in Berlin in 2009. Gay who had owned the season's best times in both the 100 and 200 meters, said he has mentally overcome the injuries that have plagued him the last few years.
So while Gay is enjoying a fantastic year of his own, Bolt still is considered the greatest sprinter today.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on Friday, Bolt said he is refusing to get caught up in Gay's resurgence. The American has the fastest 100-meter dash this season with a 9.75-second time.
"I never focus on one person," Bolt said. "It doesn't make sense."
The Jamaican, however, still considers retaining his "World's fastest" moniker will be daunting.
"You want to dominate for the rest of your career," he told reporters in France. "It's going to be hard. It's going to be challenging."
Bolt owns the world record in the 100 meters, recording a time of 9.58 seconds, also in Berlin in 2009.
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