Speedster Powell warms up for Gay clash by leaving Bolt trailing

13 April 2012

Asafa Powell will arrive for his 100metres clash with Tyson Gay in Friday night's Aviva London Grand Prix with his confidence bolstered after a brilliant win over Usain Bolt in last night's IAAF Super Grand Prix in Stockholm.

Powell, rather than Bolt - who took away his world record by two hundredths of a second with a time of 9.72sec at the end of May - produced the lightning start in the 1912 Olympic stadium.

That swiftness out of his blocks carried him into an unassailable lead although his younger Jamaican rival nearly snatched what would have been a dramatic victory with a storming finish.

Mine, I think: Jamaica's Asafa Powell wins the 100m ahead of Usain Bolt

Mine, I think: Jamaica's Asafa Powell wins the 100m ahead of Usain Bolt

'My start was very good but I did make mistakes, particularly in the last 20 metres when I slowed down too early,' said the 25-year-old Commonwealth champion who clocked a season's best of 9.88sec ahead of Bolt with Norway's Jaysuma Ndure third.

'But I'm very excited with the win and looking forward to meeting with Tyson in London.'

The clash between the pair of Caribbean titans was the highlight of the meeting
where four outstanding stadium records saw Abubaker Kaki, Dayron Robles, Meseret
Defar and Yelena Isinbayeva rewarded for their world-class efforts.

The quartet each collected one-carat diamonds worth £5,000 for outstanding
victories in their respective 1,000m, 110m hurdles, 5,000m and pole vault
competitions.

Kaki, the 19-year-old world indoor 800m champion, posted a world season best of
two minutes 13.03sec on his debut over the distance while Robles missed his
world high hurdles record by just 0.03sec with a time of 12.91.

Time to celebrate: Asafa Powell after his victory

Time to celebrate: Asafa Powell after his victory

Defar, running on her own for almost the entire 12 and a half laps, clocked the
second fastest 5,000m time ever of 14:12.88 - just shy of fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba's world record.

Isinbayeva added to her victory three years ago by adding six centimetres to her 2005 stadium record with a vault of 4.85m.

Jo Pavey finished third in the 5,000m behind Defar and Tanzanian runner-up Zakia Mrisho and went under 15 minutes for the first time this season with a time of 14:58.36.

'This race fell really well into my schedule before I leave for Beijing at the end of the month,' said Pavey who will run both the 10,000m and shorter distance in China.

UK high jump champion Tom Parsons cleared 2.24m but lost third place on
countback. Olympic champion Stefan Holm won with a height of 2.30m.



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