Usain Bolt ran a 100 metres world record of 9.72 seconds on Saturday night at the Reebok Meet in New York, bettering the mark of fellow-Jamaican Asafa Powell, dpa reported.
Bolt defeated world champion Tyson Gay of the US in the race as he shaved two hundredth of a second off Powell's mark of 9.74 seconds from September 9, 2007, in Rieti, Italy.
The 21-year-old Bolt was helped by a legal tailwind of 1.7 metres per second.