Powell equals world record again in end of Letzigrund era

By Hans-Hermann Maedler Aug 19, 2006, 2:02 GMT

Jamaican Asafa Powell (C) runs to win the men\'s 100 meter race at the Golden League athletics meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, Friday, August 18, 2006. At left is US Gay Tyson and at right Portuguese Francis Obikwelu. EPA/STEFFEN SCHMIDT

Zurich - Asafa Powell of Jamaica ran a 100 metres world record 9.77 seconds the third time his career on Friday for a stylish end of an athletics era - the final edition of the Golden League athletics Weltklasse meet held in the old Letzigrund stadium.

Powell is one of four athletes who remain in the hunt for the full 1 million dollar Golden League jackpot, the others being 400m runners Sanya Richards of Jamaica and Jeremy Wariner of the US, plus Ethiopian distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba.

On Friday, Powell powered to victory ahead of ahead of American Tyson Gay (9.84 seconds). He originally set the record on June 14, 2005, in Athens and equalled it for the first time two months ago on June 11 in Gateshead.

He shares the record with Justin Gatlin, who ran 9.77 on May 12 in Doha.

The two were originally set to meet in the first 2006 showdown in Zurich, but the world and Olympic champion Gatlin is suspended following a positive doping test on April 22 which could also cost him the record.

'Very fast: that is how this race felt. I'm the only one who has ever run 9.77 three times. I ran a world record three times. Nobody has done that before. One way or the other, there will come a time when I run under 9.77,' he said.

'My second world-record race felt best because this was the race that was put together best. In the race today I leaned back in the middle so it was not perfect.'

It was the 24th world record in the long history of the world's most prestigious meet which was held Friday for the last time in the old Letzigrund stadium. The stadium will undergo a complete overhaul from Monday onwards for the Euro 2008 football tournament.

The first record came 1959 from German 110m hurdles runner Martin Lauer. The biggest night was in 1997 when Wilson Kipketer (800m), Haile Gebrselassie (5,000m) and Wilson Boit Kipketer (3,000m steeplechase) set three world records.

The who-is-who in athletics as Zurich world record holders also includes Alberto Juantorena, Carl Lewis, Sebastian Coe, Evelyn Ashford and Heike Drechsler - many of them presented to the 23,000 fans in a grand finale after Friday's meet.

Powell joined this elite list and remained on course towards at least sharing a 1 million dollar Golden League jackpot for those athletes who win their event at all six stops of the elite series.

Powell has won at all four stops held so far in Olso, Rome, Paris and Zurich, and also needs wins in Brussels (August 25) and Berlin (September 3) to complete the full amount of wins. Athletes who win five times are eligible for 500,000 euros from the jackpot.

'The jackpot? If I get it I'll be happy. My goal is always to continue to run fast. World record in Brussels or Berlin? I don´t know but anything is possible,' he said.

The world and Olympic champion Wariner was untroubled in his 400m win in 44.20 seconds and so was Richards, who won the women's race in an equally modest 50.18 seconds.

The double world champion Dibaba also has four wins after running away from her 5,000m rivals in the final lap to win in 14:45.73 minutes ahead of Kenya's Edith Masai (14:48.22).

'It's very nice, I'm very happy. The race was not easy. My time is not bad but it was not important,' said Dibaba.

In other action, Saif Saeed Shaheen of Qatar missed his 3,000m steeplechase world record by three seconds when he posted 7:56.54 minutes.

Kenenisa Bekele won the 5,000m in a 2006 world leading 12:48:25 minutes. Season leader Sherone Simpson of Jamaica won the women's 100m in 11.09 seconds in the absence of Marion Jones, who early Friday left Zurich for her American home for what her management named 'personal reasons.'

'Of course I'm happy to win in this great stadium and I want to repeat my wins in the future in the new one,' said Bekele, summing up the mood of most stars.