Justin Gatlin Still Believes

Justin Gatlin believes he can still beat sprint rival Usain Bolt, despite two defeats by the Jamaican at the recent World Championships in Beijing.

The American, 33, has run personal bests for the 100m and 200m this season - and says he can still go faster.

"Each year in the last three years I just focus on being a better athlete and trying to improve and that has shown in my performances," he said.

Gatlin returns to action in Friday's Diamond League meeting in Brussels.

He will be crowned overall 100m champion if he finishes in the top three in Brussels, with 29-year-old Bolt - who was out of contention for the Diamond League crown - not competing. Gatlin also runs over 200m in Belgium.

Gatlin, who has twice served doping suspensions, finished behind the 11-time world and six-time Olympic champion in both sprint finals in Beijing last month.

But he added: "The margin between us is getting smaller and smaller.

"In 2014 I was in consistent 9.8 shape and this year I've been pretty much consistently in 9.7 shape. Next season I hope to do even better. It's just about growth and being there on the day to perform.

"It's not for me to say what you can and can't do at a particular age. I don't think I'm going to hit a limit like 'Uh! I'm 34 I can't learn anything anymore - I can't focus on being a better athlete'.

"I think a lot of athletes once they get into their mid-thirties they focus more on life and on having kids and a family - kind of more exiting out the game."

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Bolt Betters Gatlin in Beijing

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Usain Bolt has described his World Championships 100m final victory over Justin Gatlin as the "hardest race" of his career.

The Jamaican, 29, lived up to his billing as the saviour of athletics as he held off the challenge of the two-time drug cheat to win in 9.79 seconds.

Pre-race favourite Gatlin had to settle for silver in Beijing.

"Coming back from injury I've had a lot of doubters, it's been tough," Bolt said after winning a ninth world title.

He added: "For me to come to the championships and defend my title is a good feeling.

How Jamaican great produced his 'Rumble in the Jungle' moment

"I definitely think this was my hardest race. I've been through a lot this season."

Bolt, back at the scene of his first triple Olympic triumph in 2008, called his Munich-based doctor, Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt, "a lifesaver".

He also insisted he did not feel the pressure to win for his sport, only to continue his own global domination.

And that looked on course to end after the semi-finals when Gatlin clocked 9.77secs, while Bolt almost tripped out of the blocks and had to fight all the way to the line to snatch the win.

"After the semi-finals my coach [Glen Mills] said, 'You are thinking about it too much. There's too much on your mind, all you have to do is remember is that you've done this a million times so just go out there and relax'. That's what I did."

There was a surreal moment before the final when 'the world's fastest piano player' was brought out to play a tune for 9.58 seconds - Bolt's world-record time.

The Jamaican's reaction was a shrug of bemusement as he showed no sign of nerves on the start line.

Instead, Gatlin was the one to feel the pressure. And the 33-year-old said he "gave away" victory.

"I stumbled in the last five metres, my arms were a little flailing," he said. "You have to come out and run and over the last five metres. It wasn't my day.

"Anyone who goes to the line to go against Usain has to be ready to go to work. In those five metres I let things get away from me. It cost me the race.

"I leaned a little too far forward and I got a little off balance."

Americans Trayvon Bromell and Canada's Andre de Grasse, who are both 20, shared bronze in 9.92secs.

Meanwhile Gatlin will have an opportunity for revenge when he and Bolt go head to head over 200m, with the final taking place on Friday.

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Gay Pips Gatlin in Paris Diamond League

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Tyson Gay recovered from a poor start to pip fellow American Justin Gatlin and win the Diamond League 100m in Paris in 9.99 seconds.

Gay, beaten by Gatlin at the recent US Olympic trials, came through powerfully ahead of Gatlin, who clocked 10.03, and Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre in 10.08.

Welshman Dai Greene showed he is back to form in the 400m hurdles as he set a new personal best of 47.84 seconds.

Greene was second behind Javier Culson, who won in a world-leading 47.78.

But world champion Greene, who had a slow start to the season after winter surgery, almost chased down the Puerto Rican in the final few metres to deliver a strong statement of intent four weeks before the heats get under way in London on Friday, 3 August.

Christine Ohuruogu also showed encouraging signs of form a month before she prepares to defend her Olympic 400m title.

The Londoner, 28, has only broken 50 seconds twice - in winning the 2007 World Championships and Olympics gold four years ago.

She never threatened the winner, Amantle Montsho of Botswana in 49.77, but set a season's best of 50.59 secs to finish fourth.

Lisa Dobriskey found the searing pace too hot to handle in the women's 1500m as Moroccan Mariem Alaoui Selsouli outsprinted Turkey's Asli Cakir Alptekin to clock the fastest time in the world this year - 3:56:15 - as she broke the four-minute barrier for the first time.

Dobriskey was eighth in 4:02, but improved her season's best by 10 seconds.

Shara Proctor, who broke the British long jump record in the recent Olympic trials, finished second with a jump of 6.65m in Paris, in a competition won by Russian Yelena Sokolova in 6.70m.

Tiffany Porter enjoyed a good run to finish third in the 100m hurdles in 12.74secs as Australian Sally Pearson won in a new world-leading time this year of 12.40, ahead of American Virginia Crawford in 12.59.

Steve Lewis finished fourth in the pole vault with 5.52m, with Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie winning with 5.77m.

Kenyan David Rudisha was half a second outside his own world record attempt at the 800m but still set a new best time in the world for the year with a 1:41:54, obliterating the rest of the field.

Mo Farah, who has set the world-leading time of 12:56.98 in Eugene last month, was given a reminder of the task he faces to win 5,000m gold in London as Ethiopian Dejen Gebremeskel stormed to victory in 12:46.81 while his compatriot Hagos Gebrhiwet set a new world junior record of 12:47.53 in second, the duo dominating a high-class field featuring 10 Kenyans and five other Ethiopians including world record holder Kenenisa Bekele.

Fastest 100m times in 2012

9.75: Yohan Blake (Jam)

9.76: Usain Bolt (Jam)

9:79: Usain Bolt (Jam)

9.80: Justin Gatlin (USA)

9.82: Usain Bolt (Jam)

9.84: Yohan Blake (Jam)

9:85: Asafa Powell (Jam)

9:86: Keston Bledman (Trin)

9:86: Tyson Gay (USA)

Gatlin Claims Doha Diamond League

World indoor champion Justin Gatlin staked his claim as a contender for the Olympic 100m with victory in Doha's Diamond League meeting in 9.87 seconds.

The American overhauled Asafa Powell in the final 30m to edge out the Jamaican by one hundredth of a second.

Olympic champion Usain Bolt opened his 2012 campaign with a run of 9.82 seconds in Kingston on 5 May.

Gatlin, who won 100m gold at Athens 2004, is eligible for London 2012 after serving a four-year doping ban.

His victory at the Qatar Sports Club marked a return to the venue where he set a new world record in 2006, a mark subsequently wiped from the record books after testing positive for testosterone.

The 30-year-old made his comeback to athletics in 2010 and won 60m gold ahead of Great Britain's Dwain Chambers at the Indoor World Championships in Istanbul in March.

Whether Gatlin gets a chance to compete for a medal at the Olympic Stadium in August is dependent on his performance in the United States trials in Portland which begin on 21 June.

Regardless of his presence, a cast of credible pretenders to Bolt's crown have made their case.

With Commonwealth champion Lerone Clarke finishing third behind Gatlin and Powell in 9.99 seconds, six men have run under 10 seconds already this season.

American Walter Dix, who won bronze in both the 100m and 200m behind Bolt at the Beijing Games, won the event's 200m in 20.02 seconds.

In a field packed with quality, American three-time world champion Allyson Felix trumped the challenge of her Jamaican rivals to win the women's 100m in 10.91 seconds.

Veronica Campbell-Brown and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Olympic champions at 200m and 100m respectively, finished second and third.

Elsewhere in the season's opening elite-level Diamond League meeting, Great Britain's Perri Shakes-Drayton came third in the women's 400m hurdles in a time of 55.25 seconds, behind Jamaica's Olympic champion Melaine Walker in 54.63.

Her compatriot Martyn Rooney finished fourth in the men's 400m in 44.99 seconds, eight tenths of a second off Olympic champion Lashawn Merritt.

Greg Rutherford, who has 2012's world-leading jump at 8.35m, came a disappointing fourth in the men's long jump with a leap of 7.98m behind Russia's Aleksandr Menkov.

But fellow Briton Andrew Osagie ran a personal best of one minute, 44.64 seconds as he finished third in the men's 800m behind Kenyan winner David Rudisha, while Molly Beckwith racked up a season's best of 1:59.51 as she came home sixth in the women's 800m.

Kate Dennison was fourth in the pole vault after clearing 4.50m, while Vivian Cheruiyot beat Meseret Defar in the women's 3,000m.

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