 At the 2009 World Championships in August , Bolt eased through the 100 m heats , clocking the fastest ever pre @-@ final performance of 9 @.@ 89 seconds . The final was the first time Bolt and Gay had met in the season , and Bolt improved his world record with a time of 9 @.@ 58 s to win his first World Championship gold medal . Taking over a tenth of a second off the previous best mark , this was the largest ever margin of improvement in the 100 m world record since the beginning of electronic timing . Gay finished with a time of 9 @.@ 71 s , 0 @.@ 02 s off Bolt 's 9 @.@ 69 s world @-@ record run in Beijing . Although Gay withdrew from the second race of the competition , the Jamaican once again produced world record @-@ breaking form in the 200 metres final . He broke his own record by 0 @.@ 11 seconds , finishing with a time of 19 @.@ 19 seconds . He won the 200 m race by the biggest margin in World Championships history , even though the race had three other athletes running under 19 @.@ 90 seconds , the greatest number ever in the event . Bolt 's pace impressed even the more experienced of his competitors ; third @-@ placed Wallace Spearmon complimented his speed , and the Olympic champion in Athens 2004 Shawn Crawford said " Just coming out there ... I felt like I was in a video game , that guy was moving – fast " . Bolt pointed out that an important factor in his performance at the World Championships was his improved start to the races : his reaction times in the 100 m ( 0 @.@ 146 ) and 200 m ( 0 @.@ 133 ) were significantly faster than those he had produced in his world record runs at the Beijing Olympics . However , he , together with other members of Jamaican 4x100 m relay team , fell short of their own world record of 37 @.@ 10 s set at 2008 Summer Olympics by timing 37 @.@ 31 s , which is , however , a championship record and the second fastest time in history at that date . 
