(CNN) -- Once Usain Bolt got out of the starting blocks, no one was going to beat him at the world championships.
Two years ago at the worlds, the Jamaican false started in the 100-meter final and was disqualified. His countryman and training partner, Yohan Blake, took advantage to claim gold in Daegu, South Korea.
There was no false start for Bolt on Sunday in rainy Moscow and he captured his second world title in the 100 meters.
His time of 9.77 seconds was well off his world record of 9.58 seconds but still good enough to comfortably beat American Justin Gatlin and Jamaican Nesta Carter.
Bolt now owns six world championship gold medals to go along with six gold medals at the Olympics.
"I am happy but I wanted to do better," Bolt was quoted as saying by the BBC. "My legs were sore after the semifinals."
Perhaps mindful of what happened in South Korea, Bolt's start was cautious and Gatlin led him early. But after getting fully into his stride, Bolt -- despite not feeling at his best -- eased past Gatlin and coasted home.
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Gatlin finished in 9.85 seconds and Carter in 9.95.
"I thought I had it for a second but then I saw these long legs coming on my right side," Gatlin told reporters.
Bolt last year called himself a "living legend" and the result in Moscow on Sunday won't diminish his confidence.
It likely also lifted Jamaican sport.
Jamaica was left reeling when two-time 200-meter Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, former 100-meter world-record holder Asafa Powell and Olympic relay gold medalist Sherone Simpson tested positive for banned substances before the world championships.
Then last week, soccer's FIFA announced that a Jamaican international tested positive for a banned substance, without naming the player.
Besides Powell, Campbell-Brown and Simpson, American Tyson Gay failed a drug test and ruled himself out of the world championships in July.
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With sprinters thus under scrutiny, Bolt spoke up in July and said: "I know I am clean."
Without Gay -- who owned the two fastest times in the 100 meters this year prior to Moscow -- and the injured Blake, Bolt's task was made easier in Russia, although Gatlin defeated Bolt in Rome in June.
Gatlin has served a four-year ban for doping.
Bolt took center stage but he wasn't the only standout to win another world title Sunday.
Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba collected her third in the 10,000 meters, an event she's won twice at the Olympics.
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