Nesta Carter of Jamaica runs to win the men's 100 metres during the ISTAF Athletics Meeting in Berlin on Sunday. - AP

Jamaica's third fastest man Nesta Carter has admited to have surprised even himself after clocking a blistering 9.78 at the Rieti Grand Prix meet in Italy yesterday.

The time set on the same track that compatriot Asafa Powell broke the world record in 2007, has seen Carter set a world leading mark, which he shares with American Tyson Gay.

"Even though I noticed that my times were coming down and everyone kept saying the Rieti track is fast, I was only expecting to run and do my best here, not run 9.7 at this time of the season," Carter was quoted as saying on popular track and field website trackalerts.com.

"I ran a race like two days ago and my body is not fully recovered from that run as yet, so I was not expecting to do that here," Carter said.

The event saw three other athletes producing personal bests as the top five went under 10 seconds. Running out of lane seven, Carter, who has been creating a storm in the event this season, was out of the blocks very quickly and continued to pull away from his opponents to score a convincing win. The win followed three other sub-10-second runs which included his previous personal best of 9.85 seconds three days earlier at the Van Damme Diamond League meet in Belgium.

The race also produced a personal best for the three athletes finishing behind Carter, the United States' Ryan Bailey clocked 9.88 seconds for second, while Jamaica's Mario Forsythe continued his rapid improvement, finishing third in 9.95 seconds.

france wonder boy

France wonder boy Christophe Lemaitre the double sprint European champion stopped the clock at 9.97 seconds for fourth. It was also a season best for World Championships and Olympic 4x100 metres relay gold medallist Michael Frater, who ended fifth in 9.98 seconds.

Sherone Simpson earned another win at the meet for Jamaica as the 100 metres Olympic joint silver medallist, won her second race in a row following victory in Berlin last week, as she won the women's 100 metres in 11.11 seconds ahead of the Bahamas' Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie in 11.15 seconds as Aleen Bailey had a fifth-place finish in 11.31 seconds.

There were mixed results in the women's 400 metre hurdles for Jamaica as Diamond League overall winner Kaliese Spencer fell at the final hurdle and ended at the back of the field, while Wilson was third in 55.07 as Sheena Tosta won the event in 54.71.

For the second time in a week, Kenya's David Rudisha put his name in the record books in the men's 800 metres. After a record run of 1:41.09 at the Berlin Diamond League meet, the Kenyan continued his excellent form this season as he broke his own mark with a new record of 1:41.01.