Bolt opens season with fourth-fastest 200m

Triple Olympic and world champion Usain Bolt ran the fourth-fastest 200 metres of all-time with a blistering 19.56 second sprint in front of his home fans at the Jamaica International Invitational on Saturday.

Only Bolt (twice) and former world record holder Michael Johnson have ever clocked faster times.

"I felt good, the race was a good one and I am on target to have a good season," Bolt told reporters after his first individual race of the season.

"My training has been going well and I am pleased with my performance," he added.

The Jamaican's world record stands at 19.19 seconds, which he set at last year's world championships in Berlin, and his latest effort was all the more impressive as it was run into a headwind of 0.8 metres per second.

Running from lane five, he quickly left the field behind and ran through to the finish without easing up. Bolt's next race is his first 100m of the season in Daegu, South Korea on May 19.

American world bronze medallist Wallace Spearmon also dipped under 20 seconds, running 19.98 seconds to finish a distant second.

Bolt's chief sprint rival, American Tyson Gay, opted for the 400 metres and won comfortably in 45.05 seconds while four more season-leading marks were set at the meeting.

U.S. world bronze medallist Carmelita Jeter triumphed in a strong women's 100 metres, edging Jamaican Olympic and world silver medallist Kerron Stewart in 10.94 seconds. Stewart trailed by two-hundredths of a second.

"I knew Kerron was going to be there with me, but my coach told me that I would have to use technique to beat her and that's what happened," said Jeter, who last year ran the fourth fastest women's 100 of all-time, 10.64 seconds.

Jamaica's Novelene Williams-Mills won the women's 400 metres in 50.32 seconds with countrywoman Kenia Sinclair clocking 1:58.62 in the women's 800.

The other leading mark came in the high jump where American Chaunte Howard Lowe cleared 2.00 metres.