Bolt's dash of stardust gets series off to flier

Usain Bolt hoists the Nitro Athletics trophy aloft as his All-Stars team celebrates winning the inaugural series on its final night at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne, Australia on Feb 11, 2017.[Photo/Agencies]

Eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt secured a classy win for his All-Stars team with two impressive runs on the final night of the inaugural Nitro Athletics series, and then declared the new format exactly what track and field needs.

After restricting himself to a leg of the mixed 4x100m relay on each of the first two nights at Melbourne's packed Lakeside Stadium, the world's fastest man contested the 150m, winning convincingly.

Bolt was clearly fastest out of the blocks and around the bend to quickly establish a lead of over 10 meters mid-race, before easing up in the closing stages.

"This is the first time I've ever been fit in February," Bolt said.

"I'm happy I got to run an individual event, I felt good, and I have to try to stay injury free.

"I've got a couple of months to go (until the world championships) and I should be fine."

The 30-year-old Jamaican superstar clocked 15.28 seconds, less than a second slower than the world record of 14.35 he set over the distance in Manchester in 2009. His world record for 200m, also set in 2009 in Berlin, is 19.19 seconds.

New Zealand's Joseph Miller finished strongly in 15.44 seconds with Confidence Lawson of England third in 15.69.

Some 45 minutes later, Bolt again ran the second leg of the mixed 4x100m relay, helping his All-Stars take out the final event of the night, as they had at the previous two Nitro meets last Saturday and Thursday.

Bolt took the baton from fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell and stretched the lead before handing over to American Jeneba Tarmoh.

Another Jamaican, Natasha Morrison, ran the final leg to secure victory for the Bolt All-Stars and move them top of the standings on the night to claim the first Nitro trophy ahead of Australia.

China, featuring two-time Olympic hurdler Xie Wenjun, finished third overall.

Bolt, who is expected to retire from the sport at the end of the year, said he wanted to run as often as he could now.

"I'm going to try to do as many meets as possible as long as I stay fit, just to let everyone see me because it's my last season."

And he predicted a bright future for the Nitro format.

"It was brilliant. It was exciting, it was different," he said.

"I knew that this is what track and field needed.

"I think the energy and vibe and even people from Jamaica who watched it and everybody I talked to said it was a lot of fun."

But he added that the experimental format involving traditional and modified events, including mixed-gender relays and an elimination mile, designed to provide non-stop action over a two-hour period, might still need tweaking.

"We know we have improvements to do. We will definitely find different events and we got to keep trying to improve it along the way," Bolt said.

"It's less stress but a lot of fun and that's what we need in the track world. It's definitely going to help athletics overall."

Twelve events were contested on each of the three nights, with points awarded for each placing, from 100 points to the winning team down to 40 for the sixth-place finisher.

To boost the series' profile, Bolt fronted the All Stars - including Jamaican, American and Kenyan athletes - against teams representing Australia, England, New Zealand, Japan and China.