BEIJING — Usain Bolt still found a way. Despite a shortage of competition and a surplus of doubts, the Jamaican sprinter had just enough speed to hold off Justin Gatlin to win the men’s 100 meters at the world championships here on Sunday.
In a final that was billed as a morality play, Bolt, the 29-year-old, finished one-hundredth of a second ahead of Gatlin, the 33-year-old American who has twice served doping suspensions.
Bolt did not come close to his record of 9.58 seconds, but his time of 9.79 seconds gave him his third 100-meter world title, after victories in 2009 and 2013.