Minus Usual Finesse, Bolt Runs Away With 100 MOSCOW - It did not rank as the most scintillating of Usain Bolt's many major victories in the 100 meters. It presumably will not be the story he will tell first when he is old and gray and long-retired one day in Jamaica. The stands in Luzhniki Stadium were not close to full at these world championships, not even for the biggest star in track and field. As Bolt and the other seven finalists prepared to settle into the blocks, the drizzle in Moscow turned to heavy rain. But Bolt, the Jamaican extrovert, has proved himself a sprinter for any weather and any time zone over the past five triumphant years, and although he would have to strain more than usual for this victory, he would reclaim the world 100-meter title he lost in 2011 after the false start heard round the world. Pushed hard early and late Sunday by the American Justin Gatlin in the adjacent lane, Bolt pulled ahead for good with about 35 meters remaining and then sprinted all the way through the finish - his eyes fixed on the huge electronic scoreboard in front of him - to win in 9.77 seconds. Gatlin, a former world 100-meter champion who has definitively rejoined the elite after a four-year ban for a doping violation, was second in 9.85 seconds with Bolt's Jamaican teammate Nesta Carter third in 9.95 seconds. Bolt will now be an overwhelming favorite to sweep the sprints here again by winning his preferred race, the 200 meters. A third gold medal also looks very likely considering that the Jamaicans had four men in the 100-meter final Sunday, with Kemar Bailey-Cole finishing fourth and Nickel Ashmeade fifth. But Bolt's margin of dominance in the 100 appears to be narrowing. Though the track in Moscow appears to be quick, the slight headwind and rainy conditions were not ideal for the time of his life, and Sunday's 9.77 was 19/100ths of a second slower than the world record of 9.58 seconds he set at the world championships in Berlin in 2009. But since winning the 100 at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 by a margin of two-tenths of a second, the gap has now steadily narrowed with each major final. His margin over Gatlin Sunday was 8/100ths of a second. Only 26, he is still very much in a sprinter's prime but then perhaps the world asks too much of Bolt. He continues to do what matters most: win when the pressure is at its most intense. He has now won two Olympic titles and two world titles in the 100. This was perhaps his most subdued performance, both within and outside the race. He still clowned around beforehand: pretending to open an umbrella and hold it aloft as he prepared to settle into the blocks. He also struck his usual Bolt victory pose after his lap of honor. But it all seemed more subdued than usual in the rain and with big blocks of seats empty in the stadium, which was no more than two-thirds full for what is usually regarded as the premier event of these championships. Earlier, the Russians got their first gold medal of the championships with Aleksandr Ivanov winning the 20-kilometer race walk, but the Americans were the ones who dominated the undercard for the men's 100. Decathlete Ashton Eaton and long jumper Brittney Reese both won world outdoor titles after winning gold at the London Olympics. Their success in Moscow was no given. Many a reigning Olympic champion did not make it here because of injury, including the Kenyan 800-meter runner David Rudisha, the British heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill and the Russian steeplechaser Yuliya Zaripova. Eaton and Reese had their bumps and bruises, too, with Eaton troubled by a hamstring strain and general fatigue. "I think it's been a long three years," Eaton said Saturday. I was kicking my own tail in Daegu at the world championships and was kicking my own tail last year to be in really good shape and do great things, which I did. And then I tried, going into this year, to keep kicking my tail the same way in training and things like that and finally I'm here in August and I'm pretty exhausted.