HELSINKI, Finland (AFP): America's Justin Gatlin earned his place among the greats of sprinting here on Sunday as he added the world 100 metres title to the Olympic crown he won last year. The 23-year-old timed a season's personal best 9.88 seconds while Michael Frater of Jamaica took silver with 10.05sec and reigning world champion Kim Collins of St Kitts and Nevis taking bronze with a similar time. Gatlin, who joins the likes of Carl Lewis, Donovan Bailey and Maurice Greene as holders of both titles, stormed home metres clear after overcoming a slow start. The champion admitted that if injured world record holder Asafa Powell had been fit enough to race, the time could have been faster. "If Asafa was here, we would have been faster. With him I would have to do my best." Gatlin's compatriot Leonard Scott had got a clean start and led for the majority of the race but the muscular American got run down first by Gatlin and Collins and then by the fast finishing Frater. While Gatlin showed the rest a clean pair of heels, Collins and Frater had to hold on grimly from the Olympic silver medallist Francis Obikwelu, who came from nowhere in lane eight. However Frater, 22, just edged the gallant 29-year-old Collins, who reserved his best two races for the semis and the final while Obikwelu finished fourth. "Thank God and thanks to my coaches," said Frater. "I just went out there and tried my best and only Justin Gatlin was in front of me." For Collins, whose slight frame contrasts to those of the majority of his rivals, it was his third successive medal at a world championships having also taken joint bronze in the 200m in 2001. "I was dead last in the quarter-finals and only just got through to the final but once I'm in a final, you'd better watch out for me," said Collins. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com