European champion Christophe Lemaitre claimed a notable scalp on Sunday as he beat American Justin Gatlin over 100-metres in Rabat. The Frenchman recorded a winning time of 9.98sec with a strong tailwind of 2.9m/s with Gatlin coming home in 10.02.

The exploit is all the more impressive as 2004 Olympic champion Gatlin, who subsequently served a four-year doping ban, beat Usain Bolt in Rome on Thursday.
Gatlin beat the Jamaican superstar, who won 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay gold medals at the last two Olympics, in a time of 9.94 in the Italian capital, with Bolt clocking 9.95.

Lemaitre was slow out of the blocks in Morocco but surged through to gallop past Gatlin in the final few strides. It was the 22-year-old’s first outing under 10-seconds this season. His French record is 9.92 set two years ago.

Wind: +2.9
1 Christophe LEMAITRE
FRA 9.98 0.191
2 Justin GATLIN
USA 10.02 0.194
3 Kim COLLINS
SKN 10.10 0.167
4 Aziz OUHADI
MAR 10.19 0.165
5 Kemar HYMAN
CAY 10.22 0.176
6 Andrew HINDS
BAR 10.26 0.154
7 Ogho-Oghene EGWERO
NGR 10.29 0.147
8 Abdelghani ZGHALI
MAR 10.60 0.180