We have witnessed Usain Bolt the imperious, Usain Bolt the record-breaker, Usain Bolt the showman. In a Moscow flash-flood last night, we saw another side of the greatest sprinter the world has seen: Usain Bolt the Stakhanovite labourer – gritting his teeth and grinding his legs to victory.

There was no sudden spurt to leave his rivals for dead nor a delirious celebration afterwards. Bolt’s legs, as he admitted later, were still sore from the semi-finals earlier in the evening.

There was, however, another world championship gold medal – his sixth in total and his second at the 100m, to follow his world-record breaking run in Berlin in 2009.

Bolt’s time of 9.77sec was the slowest in a major final. But it was still a half-metre too good for Justin Gatlin, the American with the Florida swagger and doping past. He won silver in 9.85 with Bolt’s fellow Jamaican Nesta Carter taking bronze in 9.95. Two other Jamaicans, Kemar Bailey-Cole and Nickel Ashmeade, finished fourth and fifth in 9.98 and Britain’s James Dasaolu was last in 10.21.

Bolt admitted that, while he is happy, he was hoping to do better. “My legs were sore after the semi-finals, I don’t know why, but the world record wasn’t on, so I came out just to win,” he said. “Back in Jamaica they do not expect less than that from me. They always expect me to dominate.”

In the stadium he was also asked if he knew any Russian. "The only thing I know is niet," he said to grateful cheers. "But thank you for coming to support me, thank you very much." He started blowing imaginary kisses but many of the tribunals staring back at him were blank.

At least the stadium was a little more packed than on Saturday night, when Mo Farah proudly took possession of the 10,000m gold medal and Vladimir Putin, looking as uptight as a bouncer in a small market town, declared the championships open.

Scattered applause
Even so the Luzhniki's vast breakfast bowl of an arena – despite being reduced in capacity from 75,000 to 35,000 for these championships – looked half-full despite decent seats for the men's 100m final night being available for 300 roubles (€6.85) on the night.

Imagine Rudolf Nureyev twirling and pirouetting to banks of sponge seats at the Kirov. Or Dmitri Shostakovich playing the Mayakovsky Operetta theatre to scattered applause. Somehow it seemed wrong for athletics’ blue riband event to be met with such stony indifference.

There was much street theatre beforehand, however, with the protagonists strutting and smiling and seeking a psychological edge. Gatlin, swarming backwards and forwards from his lane number to the blocks, was the most vocal, hollering: “Let’s go, let’s go” to the camera.

The Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, stiff-backed and eyes sliding from side to side, was the most nervous..

Bolt, though, was the epitome of jazz-era cool. As he was introduced to the crowd the heavens opened, so he whipped out an imaginary umbrella and smiled. In Daegu in 2011, with his training partner Yohan Blake a clear and present danger, he made a false start in the final and was disqualified. But with Blake absent through injury and Tyson Gay – who has run the fastest time in 2013 – missing after testing positive, there were no such reasons to be fearful in Moscow.

Up close
Bolt was out of the blocks sharpish, in the same reaction time of 0.163 as Gatlin, and, although the American picked up the quicker and led by the width of a torso for the first 50m, Bolt was always up close.

As his stride began to lengthen he got on terms by 50m and was ahead by 60m. But there was no quickening of the gears or acceleration of spectators’ pulse: Gatlin stayed half a metre behind him until the line. “I was never worried: I know what I am capable of,” said Bolt. “After the semis I knew who was capable of running faster. I knew Gatlin would be the biggest rival but as long as I had him covered it was okay.”

He then pledged again to do what he could to divert attention from the numerous drug scandals that have tainted these championships.

“I want to distract people away from the bad things,” he said. “I just enjoy running. I help in any way I can.”

Earlier, Ethiopia‘s Tirunesh Dibaba bided her time before letting loose on the final lap with an awesome display of speed to complete a hat-trick of world 10,000m titles.

Olympic champion Dibaba who is now unbeaten in her 11 outings over the distance won in 30:43.35.

Kenya‘s Gladys Cherono was second in 30:45.17 and fast-finishing Ethiopian Belaynesh Oljira pipped Emily Chebet for bronze in 30:46.98.

Arguably the greatest women's distance runner, Dibaba also won the 10,000 in 2007 and did the distance double at the 2005 worlds.
Guardian Service