by Our Sports Desk

USAIN BOLT stormed to the World Championship sprint double yesterday, with a runaway segway proving more problematic than Justin Gatlin.

Four days on from riding to the rescue of his beleaguered sport in the 100 metres, the Jamaican attempted to make it four successive half-lap world crowns in Beijing.

Gatlin, cast as athletics’ number-one villain, again stood in his way but once more failed to wrestle away gold as Bolt held strong down the home straight to win with a world-leading 19.55 seconds.

The 29-year-old finished the 200m final an impressive 0.19 secs ahead of two-time drugs cheat Gatlin, whose comments in the build-up clearly irked the Jamaican sprint great.

“It was never a doubt to me,” Bolt said after the standard exuberant celebrations. “Maybe I doubt a lot of people, but I never doubt that I will win my 200 metres.

“I wasn’t worried. I knew I had to run the first 150 hard. After the first 150, I looked across and I could see that Justin Gatlin was tiring and then it was never a doubt I would win the race.

“Why I really celebrated was because Justin Gatlin said earlier in the week that he was going to bring out something special for the 200 metres.

“I was like ‘yo, you don’t talk about my 200 metres like that’ so I had to prove to him that I am number one.”

During the celebration the wheel of a TV cameraman’s segway rolled up on to a camera track, changing the vehicle’s direction and taking the sprinter out from behind.

There was an audible gasp inside the Bird’s Nest as the double gold medallist was wiped out, but he quickly composed himself and allayed fears of any lasting impact afterwards.

The 4x100m relay promises to be another fascinating battle between Jamaica and the United States, with bookmakers making the latter slight favourites to top the podium.

Silver medallist Gatlin was the only US runner in the final and was followed home by Anaso Jobodwana, whose South African record time of 19.87 pipped Panama’s Alonso Edward by just two-thousandths of a second.

“It was a rough season and before this I ran 20.20, so I just told myself that I was going to go and try for the best,” Jobodwana said.

“It always feels great to run against those guys. I started to run in 2008 and running against (Bolt) always gives you some energy.”