Source: IAAF.org – Sept. 1, 2010: American Tyson Gay won the battle of 100m world leaders today, beating Jamaica’s Nesta Carter to highlight the 60th Anniversary edition of the Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, Croatia – the final IAAF World Challenge meeting of 2010.

It was hardly the smoothest race in Gay’s already storied career, but history’s second fastest man was nonetheless content with his 9.92 victory and meeting record in unseasonably chilly conditions before a capacity crowd.

“It wasn’t as fast as I wanted to run, but I’m happy with the victory,” said Gay, who remained unbeaten in five 100m outings this season. At the start, however, that perfect record seemed to be in serious jeopardy.

Lined up in lane five with co-world leader Nesta Carter just to his inside, Gay played catch up from the gun when his starting blocks slipped, forcing him to slip while simultaneously trying to avoid what he described as a “slight panic mode”.

“You can recover, you just can’t panic, and you have to pump your arms harder,” Gay explained, providing a primer on slipped block recovery.

He did just that and drew even with Carter at about 70 meters. A stride later the two bumped hands – Gay immediately apologized to his Jamaican rival at a post-race press conference – before Gay powered away over the final 20 meters. Gay estimated that he would have run in the mid-9.8 range had the contact not occurred.

With the race out of reach, Carter shut it down in the waning stages to finish second in 10.07, with American Michael Rodgers (10.14) finishing third. (Meet results)