Usain Bolt notches perfect ten in Toronto

USAIN Bolt clocked a perfect ten at the Toronto Festival of Excellence last night as he continued his dominance over the USA.

PERFECT TEN: Usain Bolt clocks ten second flat in his first 100m of the season in Toronto

The Jamaican 100, 200m and 4x100m Olympic champion crossed the line in 10.00 seconds in difficult conditions in Canada, a quarter-of-a-second faster than closest rival Shawn Crawford.

"It felt good," Bolt said. "I think I should have done a little better. For me, it's all right. I got through it injury free so that's a good thing.

"You've got to be very careful because you have a lot of running to do and you can't manage to get injured at this time of the season.

"I'm kind of used to running in the rain but I prefer not to do it."

Crawford, the Athens 2004 Olympic 200m champion, was second to Bolt over the same distance in Beijing, and he edged out compatriot Ivory Williams.

It was Bolt's first race on the track since he was involved in a car accident in April, when he crashed his BMW into a ditch, but he had clocked a new world's best over 150m at the BUPA Great City Games in Manchester - also in poor conditions.

Bolt was however, 0.06 secs down on the fastest time this year across 100m, set by American Mike Rodgers at the Prefontaine Classic on Oregon last week.

Meanwhile, Olympic 400m champion LaShawn Merritt romped to victory in 44.86 secs and immediately set his sights on the national championships at the end of the month.

"I pretty much cleared the field," Merritt said. "I was coming down the home stretch and saw that I was in the lead. In a week and a half I have my nationals. I wanted to come in and get a good race, I got a good race."