EUGENE, Oregon (AP) - World 100-meter champion Tyson Gay ran a wind-aided 9.75 seconds at the U.S. championships on Thursday.

It was the seventh-fastest time under any conditions, but after the preliminary race Gay was finished at the championships. His coaches confirmed he wouldn’t race again.

"But I want to," Gay said. "Because I ran a horrible race."

Already qualified for this year’s world championships in Berlin, Gay used the nationals as a tune up. Because of the wind, the time won’t go down as the new American record, even though it was .02 seconds faster than the mark he set last year on the same track.

Record or no, over the past four weeks, Gay has made his point: He’s ready to take on world-record holder Usain Bolt.

Combine this with the 19.58 he clocked in the 200 in May in New York - only the third sub-19.6 ever in that event - and it’s clear Gay was over whatever ailed him last year when an injury at the Olympic trials on the same track at Eugene derailed his season.

Was he trying to send a message?

"Not necessarily to anybody in particular, but more for myself," he said. "I knew it was wind-aided, so of course it doesn’t go into the books. But at the same time, it still lets me know that my legs are ready to turn over faster. They’re a lot faster when I execute the beginning part."

Gay, the 2007 world champion, said if it had been up to him, he’d race again this week. But there are coaches and agents and schedules to keep, and it appears his team was satisfied with simply seeing him get the cobwebs out.