Olympic champion Justin Gatlin has won the men's 100-meters race at the Golden Gala athletics meet in Rome, the second leg of the Golden League Competition.
Gatlin missed a highly-anticipated showdown with world record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica when Powell pulled out with an injury. However, the Olympic champion beat another rival, Aziz Zakari of Ghana, finishing in 9.96 seconds.
In the women's 100-meters, Christine Arron of France beat Me'Lisa Barber and Allyson Felix of the United States, winning in 11.03 seconds.
Elsewhere in men's competition, American Dominique Arnold beat Athens gold medalist Liu Xiang of China in the 110-meter hurdles, finishing in 13.11 seconds. Liu was 0.13 seconds back.
Tyree Washington won the 400-meters race in 45.02 seconds. Rashid Ramzi of Bahrain won the men's 1,500-meters race in 3:30. Daniel Komen of Kenya was second, 0.37 seconds back.
Saaeed Saif Shaheen of Qatar won the men's 3000-meters steeplechase in 7 minutes, 56.34 seconds, edging Paul Koech of Kenya by 0:03 of one second. Ukraine's Andriy Sokolovskyy won the high jump by clearing 2.38 meters. Olympic champion Stefan Holm of Sweden tied for second with Jaroslav Bába of the Czech Republic (2.36 meters).
In women's events, American Sanya Richards beat Olympic champion Ana Guevara of Mexico to take the 400-meters race in 49.82 seconds. Hasna Benhassi of Morocco won the 800-meters in one minute, 58.41 seconds. Svetlana Cherkasova of Russia was second.
Tirunesh Dibaba led an Ethiopian sweep of the top three places in the 5000-meters race, finishing in 14 minutes, 32.57 seconds. Two-time world champion Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia won the triple jump with a distance of 15 meters, three centimeters.
The meet was the second of the Golden League competitions, in which athletes can win a share of one million dollars in gold if they win their discipline in all six meets and also compete in the Athletics Finals in September.
Some information for this report provided by AP.