PARIS, July 8 - Jamaica’s Asafa Powell won the men’s 100m at the IAAF Golden League meeting here today with an impressive time of 9.85sec.
Powell, 23, currently shares the world record time of 9.77sec for the event with America’s Justin Gatlin.
He believed he was ready to go as low as 9.6 seconds at the Stade de France after last month equalling at Gateshead in England the world-best time he first clocked in Athens in July last year.
But Powell fell just short and said: I was disturbed by the false start, but it was a great race, even if I'm a little disappointed with the time.'' Powell claimed before the Paris event that Gatlin was running scared of a head-to-head meeting and he continued to taunt his rival here by saying: Before Justin ran 9.77 I had already done it and I’ve done it again. That means unless he can do it again, I will be the fastest.’’
However in six days time in Rome, Powell will find a faster track and probably a warmer evening to give him a chance of once and for all claiming the record all on his own.
Meanwhile, American Marion Jones broke the 11-second barrier for the first time since 2002 to win the women’s 100m.
Former triple Olympic gold medallist Jones recorded a time of 10.92s to go close to the 10.90s she ran in Madrid in September 2002.
Jones, 30, was making a rare appearance in Europe (edit crap).
World and Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner of the USA won in a time of 43.91s but the ultimate target for the 22-year-old Texan is the legendary world record of 43.18s of Michael Johnson.
``I hope to manage around 43.5 by the end of the year, maybe even 43.3,’’ said Wariner, who beat his own personal best by 0.02s and was more than a second in front of American champion Andrew Rock.
Other performances of note were the women’s 1500m won by Russia’s Yuliya Chizenko in 3:55.68, American Terrence Trammel’s 13.06s over 110m hurdles, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, who ran 12:51.32 in the men’s 5,000m and women’s polevaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who cleared 4.76m, which were all world best performances this year.
Those still in with a shot of sharing the $US1 million Golden League jackpot are Powell, Wariner, Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba, who won the women’s 5000m, and America’s Sanya Richards in the women’s 400m.
AND THERE ARE SOME ACTION PIX OF MARION AND ASAFA IN “ANALYSE THIS” THREAD UNDER “ADVANCED SPRINTING” SECTION