His astonishing performance in the Aviva London Grand Prix, the second British leg of the IAAF Samsung Diamond League, was 0.04 faster than the previous best this year, 9.82, set jointly by Bolt and his Jamaican colleague Asafa Powell.

In a race which had been robbed of the presence of Powell because of a lower back injury - and which was originally to have included Bolt before he had his disagreement with the British tax system - Gay provided his own motivation.

The former world 100 and 200m champion got away to a stupendous start that was in direct contrast to his sluggish effort in the semi-final and pulled irresistibly clear of a field which included Trinidad’s Olympic silver medallist Richard Thompson and Jamaica’s rising talent Yohan Blake to send a roar of appreciation around the Palace from a crowd that was simply not expecting anything so fast at a meeting which had had to be delayed earlier because of a downpour.

There was more than a shade of Bolt’s first world record of 9.72, set amid lightning storms at New York’s Randall island, about his performance.

And now, with Powell hors de combat and Bolt out of the running for the rest of the season because of his own lower back problem, Gay will finish 2010 as the main man.

"I wasn’t expecting to go that fast in these conditions but I knew I was in good shape and was going to go fast. I was hobbling a bit at the end – my groin is a little sore but I’m sure it’s OK," said Gay.

"I wasn’t necessarily sending a message to Asafa and Usain, I was just running my own race.

"I think there’s more to come.

"It's great to be on top of the world - that’s important to me.

"This is not the best shape I’ve ever been in because I’m still dealing with a few injuries.

"My  coach said that I can run 9.7 in any conditions and I think I showed that tonight.

"I really had to go back and re-focus after my heat.

"I’m really happy.”

Blake finished second in a personal best of 9.89 to indicate the depth of sprinting talent in his country, with Thompson taking third place in 10.05.

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