23 Jul 2016

Bolt wins in London

10:01 am on 23 July 2016

Usain Bolt proved his fitness before next month's Olympics as he won the men's 200m at the Diamond League Athletics meeting in London.

Usain Bolt

Usain Bolt Photo: Photosport

The six-time Olympic champion ran home in 19.89 seconds - 0.15 secs ahead of Panama's Alonso Edward with Britain's Adam Gemili third.

Bolt's performance will have eased concerns after he missed the Jamaican trials earlier this month with injury.

The 29-year-old Jamaican won gold in both the 100m and 200m at the London and Beijing Olympics, and will defend both titles in Rio next month.

The fastest 200m time of the year is 19.74 by United States sprinter LaShawn Merritt, while Bolt's world record - set in 2009 - is 19.19.

France's Jimmy Vicaut won the men's 100m in 10.02.

"I'm getting there," Bolt told BBC Sport. "I'm not fully in shape.

"I didn't execute the start well but I came through injury free so I'm happy with that."

American Kendra Harrison earned some consolation for the heartache of missing out on the Rio Olympics when she broke a 28-year-old world record by winning the 100 metres hurdles in 12.20 seconds.

Harrison, who finished sixth in the US trials after going into the race with the fastest time of the year, collapsed to the track in tears after the clock flashed up her time.

It was one hundredth of a second faster than the mark set by Bulgaria's Yordanka Donkova in 1988 - four years before Harrison was born.

-BBC and AAP