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streets ahead

PEERLESS: Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt, right, races ahead of British sprinter Rikki Fifton to win the 150m street race in central Manchester, England, on Sunday. 17/05/09. Pic. Jon Super. © AP.
PEERLESS: Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt, right, races ahead of British sprinter Rikki Fifton to win the 150m street race in central Manchester, England, on Sunday. 17/05/09. Pic. Jon Super. © AP.

MANCHESTER - Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt skimmed over a rain-soaked temporary track to set a world 150m best in a street race on Sunday.

MANCHESTER - Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt skimmed over a rain-soaked temporary track to set a world 150m best in a street race on Sunday.

Organisers spent hours brushing puddles of water off the purpose-built track after torrential rain had soaked the northern English city before the race.

Bolt, the world 100 and 200 metres record holder, responded by clocking 14,35 seconds, bettering the mark of 14,8 set by Italian Pietro Mennea in 1983.

Sunday's win capped a memorable weekend for Bolt. The 22-year-old Jamaican watched his beloved Manchester United clinch the Premier League title at Old Trafford on Saturday and he was due to present an award later at the club's players dinner.

He met Alex Ferguson's squad and watched them train prior to their 0-0 draw with Arsenal and even taught Cristiano Ronaldo a new goal celebration in the process.

"I shook all the players' hands and watched them play. It was real fun. I started supporting them because of Ruud van Nistelrooy. I watched him a lot. He left but I carried on supporting them because they are champions," Bolt told reporters.

"I'm not in the best of shape but I'm getting there. I didn't come here to joke around, I came here to win."

Olympic 200m bronze medallist Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie of the Bahamas beat Britain's Olympic and world 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu in the women's 150m.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia's world marathon record holder Haile Gebrselassie won the Great Manchester Run 10km race for the second time. - Reuters

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