Dzingai struggles in Lausanne

Brian Dzingai

Brian Dzingai’s finished outside the top three in a 200m "B" race at the IAAF Super Grand Prix in Switzerland.

The United States-based Zimbabwean sprinter clocked 20,66sec as he was relegated into fourth place by Irishman Paul Hession, who won the race in 20,50sec.

The time was outside Dzingai’s national record of 20,12sec set in June 2004 at Austin in Texas, United States. According to reports from Lausanne, second and third place in the men’s 200m "B" race went to American Kelly Willie (20.53sec) and Japan’s Shinji Takahira (20.58sec).

Running in pouring rain, Dzingai struggled to get into the right gear as Hession, Willie and Shinji sped past him much to his disappointment.

Dzingai, who raised his profile during last August’s Olympic Games in Beijing, China, where he was placed fourth overall in the men’s 200m final, was using Tuesday night’s event to fine-tune himself for next month’s World Championships.

The 12th IAAF World Track and Field Championships are set to run from August 15-23 in Berlin, Germany, where Dzingai is expected to carry the Zimbabwean flag in the men’s 200m event.

But if his performance on Tuesday night in Lausanne is anything to go by, he is likely to find it difficult to get a podium place in Berlin.

However, Dzingai still has a few more weeks to sharpen up for the World Championships where he is likely to come up against Jamaican phenomenon Usain Bolt in the men’s 200m event.

While Dzingai was left kicking himself after another disappointing performance on Tuesday night, Bolt continued to wreak havoc in the sprint events on the international stage.

Bolt featured at the same IAAF Super Grand Prix in Lausanne and he ran in the main men’s 200m race.

The tall Jamaican was once again at his irresistible best.

Bolt recorded the fourth fastest time in history in the 200m of 19,59 seconds at the Lausanne meet despite the pouring rain.

The 22-year-old triple Olympic champion — world record holder both at 100m and 200m — eased home 82 hundreths of a second ahead of the United States’ 400m Olympic champion Lashawn Merritt.

Recently-crowned American champion Shawn Crawford was left trailing over a second behind.

Bolt, who was running into a headwind, was just a hundredth of a second outside the best time of the year set by United States triple world champion Tyson Gay, who had the benefit of a favourable tailwind when he ran in New York on May 30.

Bolt’s next race will be the 100m at the Golden League meeting in Paris, France, on July 17.

His compatriot and perpetual underachiever in major finals Asafa Powell won the 100m in 10.07sec into a headwind, which left the former world record holder satisfied.

"I hate running in the rain but I am very happy with my performance," Powell, who along with Bolt was part of the Jamaican quartet who ran a world record in the 4x100m relay in last year’s Olympic final, said after the race.

Cuba also celebrated a double victory as world record holder Dayron Robles won the 110m hurdles in 13,18sec while Yargelis Savigne easily won the triple jump as she recorded a best hop skip and jump of 14,91 metres, a half metre better than her nearest rival.

Meanwhile, Dzingai was the only Zimbabwean athlete who took part in the IAAF Super Grand Prix in Lausanne

His fellow Zimbabwean sprinter Young Talkmore Nyongani was taking a rest after racing at the Bislett Golden League meet in Oslo, Norway, last Friday night.

In Oslo, Nyongani, who is also expected to be part of the Zimbabwean team for next month’s World Championships in Berlin, finished a disappointing sixth and last place in the men’s 400m race in 46,21sec.

The race was won by Renny Quow of Trinidad and Tobago, who clocked 45,18sec, beating Leslie Djhone of France (45,37sec) and Democratic Republic of Congo’s Gary Kikaya (45,53sec) into second and third places.