Powell the fastest man on earth
Posted Wednesday, 15 June, 2005
Duncan Mackay
Wednesday June 15, 2005
Guardian, www.sport.guardian.co.uk
Asafa Powell set a world record for the 100 metres last night in the Athens stadium where he flopped in the Olympic Games 10 months ago.
The Jamaican, who has been competing for less than five years, ran 9.77sec in the Tsiklitiria 2005 meeting to take one-hundredth of a second off the previous record with a performance that, in the end, was as predictable as it was spectacular.
Powell, the son of a preacher from Spanish Town, becomes the ninth man to hold the world record since Jim Hines first dipped below 10 seconds in 1968.
Apart from sparking celebrations all across the Caribbean Powell's run will also have been particularly welcomed at the headquarters of the International Association of Athletics Federations in Monaco as it broke the controversial mark held by Tim Montgomery.
They faced the unwelcome prospect of having to strip the American of the record 9.78 he had run in Paris in September 2002 if he is found guilty by the Court of Arbitration for Sport of using banned performance-enhancing drugs as a result of his alleged links with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
Powell has at least now saved them the embarrassment of having to remove the most recent version of sport's most important record from its history books.
A fast time had looked on the cards last night from the moment Powell won the semi-final in 9.98, despite having eased up 20 metres from the line in a race in which Bath's Jason Gardener finished third, in 10.13.
Powell did not disappoint in the final an hour later. He rose out of the blocks ahead of everyone and stormed down the track to win by two metres from Ghana's Aziz Zakari, who ran 9.99.
Gardener was outclassed and finished last of the nine runners in 10.29. At least he had done better than Mark Lewis-Francis. The Birmingham runner failed even to reach the final after finishing sixth in 10.36 in his heat.
It was watching on television as Maurice Greene won the Sydney Olympic title in 2000 that fired Powell's imagination. "I loved the way he always seemed to be in total control of what was happening," he said.
This performance meant Powell has followed in the footsteps of his hero. It was on the same Olympic Stadium track in 1999 that Greene had set a world record of 9.79.
"It is amazing that after Maurice I have also achieved a record in this stadium," said Powell. "I knew I could break the world record and I am very happy that I have succeeded."
Many had last year tipped Powell to succeed Greene as Olympic champion after a series of brilliant runs leading into the Games, including 9.91 in the British grand prix at Crystal Palace in a season during which he broke 10 seconds nine times.
A raging favourite in Athens, he managed only a distant fifth as Justin Gatlin claimed the gold medal. It was his only defeat of the season.
Jamaicans will at last feel a sense of justice that they are able to celebrate the success of a sprinter from their island without having had to send him overseas to watch him develop. In 1992 they cheered Linford Christie, born near Kingston, win the Olympic title in a British vest. Then four years later they saw Donovan Bailey, born in the town of Manchester, claim the gold medal in the red vest of Canada in a world record of 9.84.
Powell is the first graduate from a scheme designed to ensure that Jamaica's finest talent does not have to leave for North America or Europe to achieve its potential.
Launched by Brigitte Foster, a former runner-up in the world 100m hurdles, and the coach Stephen Francis, it provides a professional environment for youngsters to train in Kingston.
Francis spotted Powell's talent at the annual school national championships in 2001 but might have been the only one to see anything special about the young man who finished fourth in the 100m in 10.61. "I really thought I knew every single young hope on the island, but I had never even heard of Asafa," said Francis.
Now he has run nearly a second quicker the whole world this morning has heard of Asafa Powell.
How the 100m record has evolved
9.77sec Asafa Powell (Jam) June 15 2005 Athens
9.78 Tim Montgomery (US) Sep 14 2002 Paris
9.79 Maurice Greene (US) Jun 16 1999 Athens
9.84 Donovan Bailey (Can) Jul 27 1996 Atlanta
9.85 Leroy Burrell (US) Jul 6 1994 Lausanne
9.86 Carl Lewis (US) Aug 25 1991 Tokyo
9.90 Leroy Burrell (US) Jun 14 1991 New York
9.92 Carl Lewis (US) Sep 24 1988 Seoul
9.93 Carl Lewis (US) Aug 17 1988 Zürich
9.93 Carl Lewis (US) Aug 30,1987 Rome
9.93 Calvin Smith (US) Jul 3 1983 Colorado Springs
9.95 Jim Hines (US) Oct 14 1968 Mexico City
10.02 Charles Greene (US) Oct 13 1968 Mexico City
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