Olympic champion Usain Bolt believes he is getting back to his best after the Jamaican trials gave him a confidence-boost in the build-up to next month's world championships in Moscow.

The world record holder won the 100m at last month's trials to secure his place at the worlds, having been given a wild-card entry into the 200 by Jamaica as defending champion.

"The trials helped me to get a lot of runs, to define where I should be," Bolt said ahead of Saturday's Paris Diamond League event, where he will run the 200m. And after the trials, I felt more confident. It felt great to run and actually accelerate at the end."

Bolt was beaten by Justin Gatlin in the Rome Diamond League 100m last month after returning from a hamstring injury.

But victory in the 200m at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo a week later, in a then-world leading time of 19.79 secs, followed by his win in 9.94 secs in the 100 at the national trials, showed he was getting back to his best form.

American Tyson Gay has recorded the season's fastest 200 of 19.76 secs since the Oslo run and tops the world leading times for the 100 with 9.75 ahead of Gatlin and Bolt.

But the Jamaican, who won Olympic gold in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay at last year's London Games, having claimed the same haul at Beijing in 2008, was happier with his latest times.

"After my first race (in Rome), I wasn't pleased, really. But last year, I also started badly," said Bolt. "The second one (in Oslo) was better.

"When you get injured, the more you compete the better you start to run. The body gets used to the competition again, you see the mistakes and you work on them."

(China Daily 07/04/2013 page23)