Gay and Carter to race the clock in Zagreb

Posted: Tuesday 31st August 2010 | 15:54

USAIN Bolt might have hung up his spikes for the season but his conqueror Tyson Gay will face another lightning quick Jamaican on Wednesday in Zagreb.

HEAD TO HEAD: Nesta Carter and Tyson Gay share the world's fastest time of 9.78 this season (Reuters)

Nesta Carter has produced the most emphatic of finishes to his season and ducked under 9.9 seconds three times this month - including a rampant 9.78 seconds in Rieti last weekend.

Two days before that race in Brussels, Gay and Carter locked horns with the American taking victory in 9.79 - 0.06 faster than the Jamaican.

Gay, 28, broke triple world and Olympic champion Bolt's two-year dominance over 100m sprinting earlier this month, with a crushing victory in Stockholm.

The former world champion and the second fastest man in the world proved that was no fluke by clocking 9.78 en route to victory in Crystal Palace - then the fastest time in the world in 2010.

Bolt had already announced he would not compete in south London but after his defeat in Stockholm, he brought an end to his season, nursing an injured back and no doubt some wounded pride.

Former world record holder Asafa Powell made the early running in the season but niggling injuries have seen him unable to improve on his season's best of 9.82 - and he too has brought a premature end to his season.

Carter, 25, however has flourished as the season comes to a climax and will go head to head with Gay in the IAAF World Challenge in one of the final races of the year, with the 2010 world number one spot still up for grabs.

And Gay believes if the gods are smiling on the duo, the record books for the season will be rewritten once more.

"I think it's possible to run faster if the conditions are right," he said.

One explanation for Carter's upturn in form could be his designs on Commonwealth Games gold in October.

A host of high-profile sprinters will not be in attendance in Delhi, including both Bolt and Powell - as well as Dwain Chambers, the fastest Brit over 100m this season.