Rio de Janeiro, Aug 19 (IANS): Usain Bolt won the men's 200 metres title at a third consecutive Olympics with a dominant performance and moved another step closer to his target of clinching three gold medals at the Rio Games here.

The Jamaican legend registered a season's best time of 19.78 seconds at the Olympic Stadium to clinch his second gold medal of the Rio Games here on Thursday.

Bolt had earlier won the men's 100m title to become the first athlete in the history of the Olympics to win the showpiece event three times in a row.

This was also Bolt's eighth consecutive gold medal at the Olympics.

Andre de Grasse of Canada took silver with a time of 20.02 while Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre got the bronze with 20.12.

Adam Gemili of Britain and the veteran Churandy Martina of the Netherlands came within a hair's breath of a podium finish before settling for the fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Bolt, who had won the 200m title at the 2008 and 2012 Games as well, now needs to win the men's 4x100m relay in order to complete a hat-trick of gold medals in three consecutive Olympic Games.

Despite winning the gold, Bolt was not happy with his performance. Prior to the race, he had publicly stated his ambition of breaking his own world record of 19:19 seconds in the 200m.

"I really wanted to go faster," the 29-year-old was quoted as saying by the NBC after the race.

"I tried but my body would not respond to me."

Jamaica have thus made a clean sweep of the 100m and 200m titles in both the men's and women's sections in Rio. Bolt has won both events in men's category while Elaine Thompson did so among the women.

Elaine also became the first female athlete to win both races since 1988 when the legendary American sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner achieved the feat.