SPORTS

Asafa breaks 100m World Record

Jamaican Asafa Powell sets a new world record of 9.77
sec in the men’s 100m ahead during the Athens Super
Grand Prix Tsiklitira 2005, at the Olympic Stadium in
Athens. AFP PHOTO/Louisa Gouliamaki

Friday,  June  17, 2005

IN what must seem like sweet revenge for his fifth place in the Olympic games 100m final in Athens, Jamaica’s Asafa Powell broke the 100 metres world record on Tuesday, running 9.77 seconds on the same track where he was disappointed in his quest for Olympic gold last year.

The 22-year-old’s mark eclipses the old time of 9.78sec set by Tim Montgomery in Paris in September 2002.

Powell, who failed to live up to his reputation in the Olympics last year, blew away from the blocks and was never threatened as he finished metres ahead of his closest rival. Ironically, the same meeting produced a world record in the same event in June 16, 1999 when Maurice Greene set the mark with a time of 9.79.

Powell - who broke the record in front of a sparse crowd at the cavernous Olympic stadium - had set his sights on the world mark after a world season best of 9.84sec last month.

“I am very happy that in my second appearance here in Greece I achieved this performance. It is amazing that after Greene, I also achieved a world record in this stadium,” he said and added that he knew he could break the record. “If you ask what I can do more this year, you will just have to wait until the end of this season to see. My father’s faith inspires me a lot.

“I always wondered what it would be like to break a world record. I achieved my goal.”

Second in the race was Ghana’s Aziz Zakari in 9.99 with Jamaica’s Michael Frater placing third with a 10.03 clocking, both personal bests.

At the same meeting, Jamaica’s Sherone Simpson edged out Zhanna Block of Ukraine in the women’s 100 metres on the line to win the race in 11:16 seconds.

Bulgaria’s star 100m runner Ivet Lalova was unable to take part after suffering a knee injury during the warm-up and was taken to hospital.

The Grand Prix was the first major athletics competition at the Athens Olympic Stadium since the Games.

As a result of consistently great times this year, Asafa Powell has also overtaken Kenenisa Bekele and Saif Saaeed Shaheen to become the first Jamaican athlete to be ranked number one in the Overall IAAF World Ranking.

Bekele and Shaheen both dropped points this week by not backing up their performances from last year, while at the same time, Powell registered a blazing performance in Ostrava by winning the Super Grand Prix in 9.85 (1408 points). Powell’s 1408 points is the best for any performance so far this year, not to mention that the race took place in a chilling temperature of 10 degrees. Powell therefore leads the Men’s Overall Ranking ahead of Shaheen of Qatar and Christian Olsson of Sweden who moved into third place as Bekele dropped to fourth.

While Powell extended his lead at the top of the Men’s 100m Event Ranking, Michael Frater moved up a place to 13th. Frater finished third in Ostrava with 10.20 (1249 points).

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