American Tyson Gay ran the third fastest 200 meters ever when he clocked 19.58 seconds at the New York Grand Prix athletics meeting on Saturday. Gay, coming back from a hamstring injury that dashed his Beijing Olympic hopes, ran away from the field to post a time bettered only by Usain Bolt's world record 19.30 set in Beijing, and the 19.32 run by Michael Johnson at the 1996 Olympics. It was the first 200 meters race of the year for world champion Gay, who had only run two 400 meters events in 2009. Fellow-American Wallace Spearmon was 2nd in 19.98 followed by compatriot Xavier Carter in 20.27 with Jeremy Wariner another three-hundredths of a second back. Former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell did not fare as well, finishing seventh in the 100 behind American winner Mike Rodgers, who clocked 9.93 seconds. Jamaica's Powell ran 10.10. Olympic silver medalist Richard Thompson of Trinidad finished fifth in 10.01. Jamaican Olympic and world champion Veronica Campbell-Brown was upstaged in the women's 100m by American Carmelita Jeter, who won in a fast, wind-aided (2.8 m/sec) 10.85 seconds. American Muna Lee was second in 10.88 followed by Campbell-Brown in 10.91. American Lauryn Williams, a 2005 world champion who finished fifth in Saturday's 100, came back to win the 200 in a 2009 best 22.34 seconds, ahead of compatriot Shalonda Solomon and Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas. Other stellar women's performances on a breezy day at Randall's Island included American Allyson Felix's 50.50 in the 400m, American Anna Willard's 1:59.29 in the 800m, Kenyan Linet Masai taking the 5,000m in 14:35.39 and American Jenn Stuczynski's 4.81m in the pole vault. Micah Kogo of Kenya won the men's 5,000m in a season-best 13:02.90 ahead of American double world champion Bernard Lagat and Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia.
