RIETI, Italy (AP) -- In his final race before this month's Olympics, Michael Johnson cruised Sunday to an easy win in the 400-metres competition at the Rieti Grand Prix meet.

 Never seriously challenged, Johnson glided across the finish line with a time of 44.46 seconds ahead of Britain's Mark Richardson and Jerome Davis of the United States.

 "I felt good, everything's right where it should be," Johnson said after the race in this central Italian city.

 Though well off his world best of 43.18, set at last year's World Championships in Seville, Spain, the time was quicker than Johnson's 45-second effort earlier this week in Berlin.

 Johnson, a double gold medal winner in the 200 and 400 metres at the 1996 Atlanta games, is slated to run only the longer event in Sydney, after pulling up with a leg injury in the July trials in the 200 and failing to qualify.

 Kenya's Noah Ngeny, who last year set the world record at the unusual 1000 metre distance at this meet, won the 1,500 metres in a time of three minutes 30.42 seconds.

 Ngeny's countryman Benjamin Kipkurui finished second in 3:30.73.

 In the men's 100 metres, Ghana's Abdul Aziz Zakari won in a time of 10.13 seconds, finishing ahead of Americans Brian Lewis and Dennis Mitchell.

 Nigeria's Mercy Nku was a double winner on the women's side, nabbing both the 100 and 200 metres. Nku finished in 11.20 in the 100, edging Petya Pendareva of Bulgaria. The Nigerian nipped Jamaica's Juliet Campbell by one-hundreth of a second in the 200, finishing in 22.96.