Bolt advances in athletics worlds

Jamaican great Usain Bolt returned to "Bird's Nest" and advanced to the world championships semifinals with 9.96 seconds in the highly-anticipated 100m qualifications on Saturday.

Bolt, who claimed three gold medals in Beijing Olympic Games, was warmly welcomed by the spectators. The world record holder did not fail them and make its to the next round at ease.

"Overall it was good. I was really happy with my performance. I think I did pretty well. It wasn't as great as I wanted it to be but I wasn't expecting it to be great in the first round," he said after the race.

Another sprinter Justin Gatlin adopted the same tactics as the year-leader finished with 9.83 seconds.

"I just did as my coaches said, I went out there to do the first half of the race really well and just wanted to go out there and get ready for the next round," he said.

The 2005 world champion planned to stun the the world on Sunday.

"Tomorrow I will give it my all and when I get into the final I want to execute my race to the fullest and see what happens," he said.

Asafa Powell of Jamaica and Tyson Gay from the United States also joined in the semifinals. Endi