ONTARIO, Canada (CMC)

Usain Bolt had a clear win but the triple Olympic gold medallist described his outing at the Festival of Excellence track and field as 'a bad day' at the Varsity Stadium on Thursday.

In rainy conditions, Bolt clocked - by his standards - a moderate 10.00 seconds to win ahead of Americans Shawn Crawford (10.26) and Ivory Williams (10.28).

He was a bulky 0.31 seconds off his own world record 9.69 seconds and although he was not expected to challenge his own world mark, the 22-year-old sprint marvel conceded that he was well short of his best.

"This is a part of the game, some day you have a good day, some day you have a bad day. I guess I'll put this down as a bad day for me," he said after his win.

false starts

The race had been delayed by two false starts, the second resulting in the disqualification of the Jamaican Marvin Anderson.

Running against a minus 0-9 metres per second wind, the event was competitive until the 6-foot-5-inch Bolt got into full stride nearing the 50-metre mark and he pulled clear of Crawford and Williams for an easy win.

Bolt said he was a little offset by the rain but did not blame the conditions.

"(The rain) threw me off a little bit, but not much. I've been there before," said Bolt.

Overall, Bolt, who was named 2008 Laureus Sportsman of the Year on Wednesday for his magnificent performance at the Beijing Olympics last year, was satisfied with the outing, his first international 100-metre race of the 2009 season.

"It felt good, I think I should have done a little better. For me it's all right, I got through it injury free so that's a good thing," he added.

In Beijing last year, Bolt became the first man to win both the 100, 200 and 4x100-metre relay gold medals with world record performances at the same Games.