'New boss' Coleman scorches to seventh fastest 100m time

American Christian Coleman used an injury and media snubbing as motivation to scorch to the seventh-fastest 100m time of all time as he snatched the Diamond League trophy for the blue riband event in scintillating style in Brussels.

Coleman, the world record holder over 60m indoors and world 100m silver medallist in London last year, clocked a personal best of 9.79 seconds, the fastest 100m run since the now-retired Usain Bolt won the 2015 world title in Beijing. Only Bolt and fellow Jamaicans Yohan Blake, Asafa Powell and Nesta Carter, and the US duo of Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin have gone quicker.

Ronnie Baker had been tipped as the one to beat at the King Baudouin II stadium, but a dreadful start left him trailing the entire field before eventually finding his rhythm to push through behind Coleman in 9.93sec.

"Winning the Diamond League with a personal record, it's like icing on the cake," said the 22-year-old Coleman on Friday.

"It means a lot to notch my name in the sport and have my name among some of the greats." The American said his time overshadowed his showing in the 60m in the Birmingham world indoors in March, which was followed by a right hamstring injury that curtailed his training and competitive appearances.

"I now feel pretty good, I came into the whole weekend with a huge chip on my shoulder because people stopped talking about me, about all that I'd done this year," the Kentucky-based athlete said.

"I was just injured, and I used that as fuel to the fire. I felt like I could go out there and do a personal best."
Coleman added: "With the world lead and Diamond trophy, I guess I'm at the top of the leaderboard at the moment... the 'new boss'."
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"I felt a little jetlagged," said Naser. "But my goal was to win the Diamond trophy and I did just that. It's been a good season and this victory makes it complete."