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WEEKLY
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| Gay, Felix shine in Kawasaki |
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Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tokyo: American star sprinters Tyson Gay and Allyson Felix coasted to victory on Wednesday in the men’s and women’s 100m races at the Kawasaki track and field meet.
Gay comfortably won in 10.13sec despite his groin injury, for which he will have a surgery after the season finishes.
“Any win feels good. But I didn’t get to run the time I wanted,” he said, after outrunning Japan’s Naoki Tsukahara and Masashi Eriguchi, both of whom clocked 10.31sec.
Officials recorded a tailwind of 0.5 m/s but Gay, 27, said he felt a consistent headwind against his face through the race. Looking back over a season nearing its finish, Gay said he was pleased with his performance, having clocked in 9.69sec on Sunday at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix — the joint second fastest time in history with Jamaican sensation Usain Bolt.
“I am very happy (to) end my season with a PR (personal record), and I am healthy. I feel good,” Gay said.
Meanwhile, Felix came from behind to win the women’s 100m sprint in 11.22sec, followed by Japan’s Chisato Fukushima with 11.42sec and Mayumi Watanabe with 11.64sec.
A 200m specialist, 23-year-old Felix admitted her 100m skills were “rusty”, and said she will review her overall performance during the off-season to decide her strategies for the future.
“For the coming year, I haven’t really decided which event I will focus on. So after this year, I am going to evaluate my season and see which event I feel like I am strong in,” she said.
Felix said she too was satisfied with the current season, highlighted by her third straight women’s 200m gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
“I was very pleased with the way this year went. It was my goal to win my third World Championship gold medal in the 200m,” she said. “I am very happy about it.”
Other stars also secured victories in their events.
American shot-putter Reese Hoffa, 2007 world champion, won with 20.21m. Donald Thomas of the Bahamas, 2007 world champion high jumper, won his competition with 2.24m.
Among women, Russian long jumper Tatiana Lebedeva, silver medallist both in the 2009 world championship and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, won with 6.60m. Female javelin thrower Kara Patterson, American national champion, won with 57.80m.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
