MOSCOW -- World record holder Usain Bolt stormed to the men's 100 world title amid a heavy rain to light up the Luzhniki Stadium while Russia's young walker Alexandr Ivanov claimed the first gold medal for the hosts in the second of 2013 IAAF World Championships here on Sunday.
Bolt started with a mediocre reaction time of 0.163 seconds and pulled clear to shrug off a strong charge from Justin Gatlin of United States, blazing through the finish line in 9.77. It was personal season best for the Jamaican, who was disqualified for fault start in the 100m final in Daegu worlds two years ago. The winning mark fell far behind his world record of 9.58, but was good enough for Bolt as well as his country which has been facing a credit crisis following a series of doping scandals before the worlds.
"For me today, it was just fun. It was not a revenge for Daegu, I just came here to win this title," said the 26-year-old Jamaican. "I wanted to do a better time but was not able to because of the weather - this is just one of those days. Not 'singing in the rain ', but 'running in the rain' tonight! My race was not perfect and the start was not perfect neither."
"I am feeling good, just a little bit tired. I need some rest. I continue to work on my aim to become a legend by collecting gold medals and athlete of the year titles; and the 200m and the 4x1 is yet to come," said an ambitious and confident Bolt.
Gatlin also clocked a season best of 9.85 to finished second, while Nesta Carter, also from Jamaica, finished third in 9.95.
"The rain actually got me excited. We saw the lightning on the horizon when we were at the warm-up track and started thinking they would postpone the race. But they wanted an epic race in rain and they got it!" said Gatlin.
Chinese walker Chen Ding, London Olympic champion in men's 20km race, also had complaint about the weather. But it was the heat, instead of the rain, that actually bothered him.
"It was not an easy race for me. I did not sleep well yesterday and weather is really hot today. At the end of the race I could barely keep my pace," said Chen who pocketed a silver after Ivanov.
The Russian clocked a personal best of one hour, 20 minutes and 58 seconds, thanks to brilliant final 5km performance, to win the dramatic men's 20km final which saw London Olympic runner-up Erick Barrondo of Guatemala and bronze medalist Wang Zhen of China both fouled out when they were making the pace.
"I feel happy and tired. I haven't realized yet that I'm the world champion. I'm still young, only 20 and my main aim is Rio 2016," said Ivanov. "There is a change of generations in our race walking team and I think that today we, the young ones, represented our country well."
Russia's 2011 World champion Valery Borchin was injured and did not defend his title but, while the trio competing in Moscow, namely Ivanov, former World and European junior champion Andrey Ruzavin and 2013 European Cup winner Denis Strelkov, have never competed at a World Championships before.
"I saw the moment when Barrondo was disqualified, he was ahead of me, but I had a feeling that I shouldn't try to chase him, and this feeling was right," he added.
Sandra Perkovic of Croatia made history by becoming the first woman to complete the "Grand Slam" of Olympic, European and World Discus titles as she hurled a winning mark of 67.99 meters.
The 23-year-old Croatian led from the very first throw of the competition and as a measure of her superiority she put together an outstanding series boasting the three longest throws of the final.
World record holder Ashton Eaton of United States won the decathlon title with a world leading of 8809 points to make up for the silver in Daegu two years ago. Eaton is only the second decathlete after Roman Sebrle of Czech Republic to break the 9000- point barrier. He brought his total score for the decathlon to 9039 at the national Olympic trials in 2012, breaking Sebrle's previous world record of 9026 points before notching the gold medal in London Olympics.
Brittney Reese also seized a gold for the United States as she win an unprecedented third gold medal in the women's Long Jump at the IAAF World Championships with her second-round leap of 7.01 meters.
"Yesterday I didn't feel great. I caught a cold and I still feel sick. I'm excited about my victory," said the defending Olympic and world champion. "I probably won't be able to properly celebrate, right now I just need some medicine."
Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia regained her 10, 000m world title after a six year hiatus with a blistering 59.96 last lap to win the gold in 30:43.35.
