Bemused Bolt disappointed with slow time in Ostrava

• Bolt labours to victory in 100 metres
• Jamaican’s slowest time in his 30 sprint finals

PRAGUE (Reuters): Usain Bolt laboured to victory in the men’s 100 metres at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava on Friday but was at a loss to explain why after failing to improve on his season best or meet the target he had set himself before the race.

Jamaica’s Olympic champion and world record holder clocked 10.04 seconds into a head wind to beat Kim Collins of Saint Kitts & Nevis and American Darvis Patton.

It was the slowest time Bolt has run in his 30 sprint finals and a step down from the 9.82 he produced in his only previous outing this season in Kingston, Jamaica on May 5.

He had spoken this week of wanting to run around 9.7 seconds as he continues his build-up to this year’s London Games.

“I’m disappointed,” Bolt told reporters. “At the start I felt pretty much no energy. I guess it was one of those bad days.

“I wasn’t feeling as strong as I usually feel out of the blocks, my legs felt dead. I don’t know what the reason is. I’ll need to go back to the drawing board, talk to the coach.”

Bolt was slow out of the blocks, after South Africa’s Simon Magakwe was disqualified for a false start, but easily reeled in Collins, who crossed the line in 10.19 with Patton three one hundredths of a second further back.

The 25-year-old Bolt said the false start did not affect him, yet his reaction time of 0.180 seconds off the line suggested otherwise.

Britain’s Dwain Chambers was fifth in a season best 10.28 but failed to reach the Olympic qualifying time of 10.18 that would have guaranteed him eligibility for selection.

Chambers, 34, served a two-year doping ban but was cleared to compete at the London Games when the Court of Arbitration (CAS) overruled a British Olympic life ban on drug offenders.