Asafa Powell, Usain Bolt and Francis Obikwelu running in Stockholm (Hasse Sjögren)

Nesta Carter - 9.98 seconds in the "B" race in Stockholm

Stockholm, Sweden – Some great sprinting and a close shave for the women’s 5000m World record was played out tonight (22) before the annual full house of 15,000 spectators at the DN Galan, a Super Grand Prix status meeting within the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2008.

Powell over Bolt but only just

Asafa Powell flew out of the blocks to what seemed and ultimately was an unassailable lead by the halfway point of the men’s dash. The Commonwealth 100m champion got the jump on his Jamaican compatriot Usain Bolt. But we hadn’t counted on the World record holder’s pick-up from that point and effortlessly he made up the margin, bar 0.01 of a second of it.

So Powell prevailed with a 9.88 sec win (+0.4m/s wind) but one senses if Bolt put together a better start then this victory would have been even more closely contested. Why? Well, while Powell made a classic lunge at the finish, Bolt was upright in his stance looking comfortably over his shoulder at the winner outside him in lane five, as if to say ‘wait for next time’. The demeanour of the winner was that of the runner-up and vice-versa on this occasion. We’ll see the reality of such possibly ideal speculation come Beijing.

Yet there is no doubting that Powell has hit superb form, and hopefully his injury worries are now behind him.

“I was really happy with the race, my goal was to win,” said Powell. “My start was quick and fast and the speed stayed with me through the finish. I am really looking forward to the Olympics.”

In third and fourth came Norway’s Jaysuma Ndure and Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago both clocking 10.06 but split by the photo.