Usain Bolt beaten by Justin Gatlin in 100m at Diamond League

Justin Gatlin beat Olympic champion Usain Bolt by one-hundredth of a second to record a surprise 100m win in Rome.

Bolt, 26, was fastest out of the blocks at the Diamond League meeting but American Gatlin, 31, powered past the Jamaican to win in 9.94 seconds.

"I need two months to get ready so I am not worried," Bolt told BBC Sport.

In his first major meet since his early exit from the London 2012 Olympics, Phillips Idowu finished seventh in the triple jump in a season best of 16.44m.

The 34-year-old Briton produced the leap in the first round but failed his next two jumps to bow out of the six-round competition, which was won by America's Olympic and world champion, Christian Taylor, 22, at the halfway stage with 17.08m.

The 2004 Olympic champion, who went on to serve a four-year doping ban, recorded his third Diamond League success after victories in Doha and Eugene by the narrowest of margins.Gatlin, however, looked in fine form as he maintained his unbeaten start to the season over 100m.

Bolt, who suffered a hamstring injury last month and was making his debut in the competition this season, jumped out of the blocks but was blowing hard by halfway as Gatlin began to impose himself on the race.

However, he had to dip his head on the line to beat the world record holder, with France's Jimmy Vicaut third in 10.02 seconds.

Bolt, who ran a season's best 9.95, added: "I got the perfect start that I wanted, then about five steps in I stumbled a bit and that kind of threw my game off.

"My legs didn't feel like my legs coming into the straight. I guess I need to do more strength work. I think I just need time to get it back together but the fact I got a good start threw me off. At least I got under 10 seconds."

There was another surprise in the women's 200m where Olympic champion Allyson Felix was well beaten into second by Ivory Coast sprinter Murielle Ahoure.

American Felix, 27, was trailing 25-year-old Ahoure coming off the bend and was unable to catch the Ivorian who ran a national record of 22.36 seconds.

Britain's Shara Proctor, 24, finished third in a competitive women's long jump, just eight centimetres behind London 2012 champion Brittney Reese, 26, of the United States, with fellow American Janay DeLoach Soukup, 27, splitting the pair.

In the 1500m, Hannah England, 26, sprinted clear of the bunch to claim fourth in a time of four minutes, 03.91 seconds, behind Sweden's Abeba Aregawi, 22, who won in 4:00.23, followed by Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba, 22, and America's Jennifer Simpson, 26.

And fellow Briton Dai Greene, the 2011 400m hurdles world champion, was fifth in his first race of the season.

Greene, 27, was left trailing by the fast-starting Johnny Dutch and Javier Culson and was unable to catch the duo as they went clear in the finishing straight.

American Dutch, 24, held on to win in 48.31 seconds with Puerto Rico's Culson, 28, second and Senegal's 26-year-old Mamadou Hanne third - Greene was fifth in 48.81.