Berlin - Usain Bolt jogged through his 200 metres on Tuesday as he started his quest of giving Jamaica a 3-0 halftime lead over the United States in the world athletics championships sprint races.

By the time of heats, American rival Tyson Gay had already thrown in the towel, stating his notorious groin problem and preferring to rest to help his relay as the US hopes for a late fightback to 3-3.

At last year's Olympics in Beijing, Bolt led the way with three gold medals as the Jamaicans routed the Americans 5-0 from the six sprints, only missing a perfect 6-0 score when the women's 4x100m relay dropped the baton in the final.

Continuing in football terms, the Jamaicans are somewhat the Brazilians of athletics with cool running opposed to the more serious-minded current American generation.

In what could be dubbed the return leg, also on neutral ground in Berlin, the carefree Bolt ran into another dimension again with a 100 metres world record 9.58 seconds on Sunday which is still the talk of the town.

Gay became the second fastest man ever over the distance with 9.71 but looked merely pedestrian compared to Bolt. Former world record holder Asafa Powell got bronze for Jamaica.

The next day, Monday, the women missed a Beijing-like sweep, but Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser won again ahead of Kerron Stewart, while Carmelita Jeter saved face for the US with a bronze a few miles behind.

"We have worked hard as a country. We have so much fire burning for our country. Our country is so small. Every day they talk about crime and corruption. We want something different for them to mention," said Fraser.

Jeter preferred not to talk of a rivalry, possibly because the affair is simply too lopsided at the moment, at least in the 100m.

"It's not necessarily a rivalry. There is no bad lip. We are all competitive," she said.

While the Americans may not be able to stop Bolt from winning the 200m, there is actually hope for them in the women's 200m and relays.

Two-time reigning champion Allyson Felix is the only woman to run the 200 faster than 22 seconds this year with 21.88 seconds.

Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown trails with 22.37 and was visibly upset about managing only fourth in the 100m, but Felix will not dare to underestimate her after losing out in Beijing.

"My main competition is Veronica Campbell-Brown, she is reigning Olympic champion and I am excited about another chance to race her again," said Felix.

She added in reference to the rivalry: "The battle with the Jamaicans has been going on for a long time. The rivalry ... is exciting, it's nothing new, but it's motivating and will make for fast races. It feels good to beat anyone, not just the Jamaicans."

The final races are the sprint relays where the US men and women dropped the baton in the heats within half an hour in Beijing in a major humiliation.

Now they want to redeem themselves in Berlin, where the men and women are defending champions, and could have some added motivation of salvaging a 3-3 draw in the sprints, provided Felix wins the 200.

Men's head coach Harvey Glance said the main task of the trainers was to boost morale again after the Beijing meltdown.

"We worked mostly on the mental aspect," said Glance, as it was the most important issue "to heal and to work on." (dpa)