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Saturday,
June 10, 2006 Powell runs record - again!
Given the history of cold weather and above average wind that usually hover over Gateshead at this time of the year, 9.77 was the last thing on anybody's mind except Asafa Powell's. But the wind and the cold conspired to stay away, maybe in respect- giving the Jamaican the opportunity to write his name in the history books again. Surely, no-one could have predicted this; not Asafa Powell, not the meeting's organisers, and certainly not Justin Gatlin. World 100m records don't get set in Britain, and definitely not in Gateshead. But that's what happened at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix on Saturday afternoon when Powell brought a glorious day's athletics to an astonishing conclusion by equalling the 100m record he set in Athens almost exactly a year ago and which Gatlin matched in Doha last month. With the temperatures in the high 20s and the wind gauge clicking over at a near-perfect +1.5m/s, the 23-year-old Jamaican was at his imperious best; first out of the blocks, first into his running, relaxed and pulling away from a world class field by half way, he crossed the line almost three tenths of a second ahead of his compatriot Michael Frater, the World Championship silver medallist who ran a good 10.06. "I told them I would do my best here and that was my best," Powell said afterwards. "I made it look easy but that's how I run." Asked
if he had a message for Gatlin, Powell, who first ran 9.77 in Athens one
year ago, momentarily looked serious. "That's how you run a world
record," he said. "I ran 9.77 last year so I knew I could do it again.
How fast can I go this year? I don't know, but I'm going to run really
fast." Powell next run will be the Jamaican National Championships at the National Stadium in Kingston from June 23-25.
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