BEIJING, Aug 16: Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won the men’s Olympic 100 metres in stunning style on Saturday, obliterating his own world record in 9.69 seconds.

He took the most coveted athletic crown with ease, soaring across the line metres clear of Trinidadian Richard Thompson in silver. American Walter Dix won bronze.

The tall, laidback Jamaican raised his arms in triumph well before he crossed the line, sealing a remarkable transition from 200 metre specialist to winner of the showcase race of the Olympics.

Bolt only began racing the 100m in the last year, putting his fellow sprinters in the shade with his performances. He first really showed his threat in May, when he set a world record time of 9.72 in New York.

Much of Jamaica was expected to have clustered around televisions to watch the extraordinary run and will have jumped for joy.

Despite a tradition of producing world class sprinters, the Caribbean island had never before won a men’s 100m gold at the Olympics.

Bolt can now set his sights on becoming the first man to win the 100m and 200m Olympic double since Carl Lewis in 1984.

He will be full of confidence ahead of Wednesday’s 200m final.

The much-touted finals run-off between Bolt, former world record holder and fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell and world champion Tyson Gay never happened.

Gay, suffering from a hamstring injury, was too slow in his semi-final to qualify for the late evening race in front of a roaring 90,000-strong crowd at the Bird’s Nest Stadium. Powell, 25, who has never won a global sprint title, finished well outside the medals.

Audiences in America will have to wait nine hours longer than the rest of the world to see the race. US network NBC will delay the broadcast until prime-time to maximise revenue after paying nearly $900 million for rights to televise the Games.

Michael Phelps earlier equalled fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz’s 1972 record of seven golds in one Olympics on Saturday after coming from behind for a fingertip victory.

Trailing Serbia’s Milorad Cavic in the 100 metres butterfly, he lunged forward on his final stroke to touch a hundredth of a second ahead, the smallest margin possible.

On Sunday, Phelps can go one better than Spitz if he wins an eighth Beijing gold in the 100 medley relay.

Phelps now has 13 career golds, four more than anyone else in the 112-year history of the modern Games.

Phelps clocked 50.58 seconds to Cavic’s 50.59, close enough for Serbian officials to protest but swimming’s governing body FINA confirmed the result.

The women, though, were in record breaking form. Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, who had won three silvers already in Beijing, finally struck gold in the women’s 200 backstroke, bringing some rare cheer to her troubled homeland.

She shaved 0.85 seconds off the previous world best.

Britain’s Rebecca Adlington also smashed a 19-year-old world record to take gold in the women’s 800 freestyle.

Then Brazilian Cesar Cielo Filho won the men’s 50m freestyle to give his country their first Olympic swimming gold.

China’s gold medal charge paused on Saturday, with only one badminton gold coming the way of the host nation as attention switched to sports where the Asian nation does less well. In all, 27 golds were up for grabs on Saturday.

Australia picked up two gold rowing medals but lost to Britain in a thrilling sprint for the line in the men’s four.

Two more medals came Britain’s way in the cycling.—Reuters