BERLIN: Usain Bolt repeated his Olympic sprint double at the World Athletics Championships here on Thursday, blitzing to a staggering new world record of 19.19 seconds in the 200m.

The new mark bettered his own previous record of 19.30sec set in the final of the Beijing Games last summer. His peerless performance caps an amazing few days for Bolt and has the chance of adding a further gold to his medal haul in the 4x100m relay.

The Jamaican smashed his own 100m record when he ran 9.58sec to take gold in that event on Sunday and showed again that he has no rivals even close to challenging him when he is in his prime. “I never expected a world record tonight,” said Bolt. “I was really tired but I told myself I had to just try and do my best. I was too upright. It wasn’t a good race, but it was a fast one. I don’t know where I can stop, I just try to run as fast as possible even if I was feeling a little tired.”

Bolt had an electric start — the fastest of the eight sprinters, firing past Panama’s Alonso Edward on his outside within his first four paces. Bolt came out strongly into the final stretch so far ahead of his rivals that the only question was whether he’d be able to break his record. He did not disappoint, his languid style powering his towering physique through the line a good 10 metres ahead of any others in the field, which did not feature injured defending champion Tyson Gay of the US.

Edward won silver in 19.81sec with American Wallace Spearmon (19.85) claiming another bronze to add to his Osaka 2007 bronze and Helsinki 2005 silver. American Shawn Crawford and Jamaica’s Steve Mullings clocked 19.89 and 19.98sec respectively. Azerbaijan’s Ramil Guliyev finished seventh in 20.61sec.