Bolt wins Athens Grand Prix 200-meter race with personal best of 19.67 seconds

Usain Bolt (Photo by : Lisa Coniglio/Getty Images)Photo Gallery>>(BEIJING, July 14) -- World 100-meter record holder Usain Bolt on Sunday won the men's 200-meter race at the Athens Grand Prix Tsiklitiria 2008, in Greece. The official website of the Athens Grand Prix reported that Bolt was clocked at 19.67 seconds, faster than his previous personal best of 19.75 seconds, which he ran one year ago in Kingston, Jamaica.

The current world record in the 200-meter race is 19.32 seconds, created by Michael Johnson of the USA at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Bolt swept his opponents with incredible speed, and was the only competitor to finish the Athens race in less than 20 seconds. The second-place runner at the Grand Prix, Brendan Christian, finished in 20.36 seconds.

The 21-year-old Bolt set a new world record in the men's 100-meter race with a time of 9.72 seconds in May at the Reebok Grand Prix in New York, according to the official website of International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Bolt's main rival at the upcoming Beijing Olympics is likely to be American Wallace Spearmon, who ran the 200-meter event in a personal best of 19.65 seconds at the Colorful 2006 Daegu Athletics Meeting in Daegu, Korea.

Bolt was quoted on the official website of IAAF Athens Grand Prix Tsiklitiria 2008 as saying: "I am very satisfied with my performance. The crowd helped me a lot. I feel sure I will be very strong at the Olympic Games."