Bolt rains supreme

Sep 5, 2008 - 10:08 PM By David Martin PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (Ticker) - Usain Bolt beat Asafa Powell in their eagerly-awaited clash in the 100 meters in a time of 9.77 seconds at Friday night's Memorial Van Damme meet.

The Jamaican pair - sharing the track for the first time since Bolt won the Olympic gold medal in a world record 9.69 seconds - were hampered by a track made wet by very heavy rain.

Powell, who lost his world record to Bolt at the end of May and is the only man to beat him this season, had a slight lead at the halfway point.

But his countryman produced a huge surge in the last 20 meters to pull clear and win by six-hundredths of a second with Nesta Carter making it a clean sweep for Jamaica, placing third in 10.07.

Another Jamaican, Michael Frater, came home fourth in 10.08.

Bolt, however, had no time for his customary showboating as he was forced to go flat out to avenge his only defeat of the season at the hands of Powell in Stockholm at the end of July.

It was the world record holder's 10th run under 10 seconds this season.

Powell came into the race on the back of running 9.87 last Sunday at Gateshead and 9.72 in Lausanne two days later - the second fastest 100 of all time - and claimed he had relished another matchup with Bolt.

"Since I've been running, this has been the most exciting race I've ever been in," Powell said.

"I knew it was going to be a close thing, as I've been running well. But he got me at the end."

Bolt, who broke Powell's year old meet record of 9.84, was relieved to come up spades after his poor start and admitted he needs to concentrate in future to get it right.

"I still have to get used to the different starters," said Bolt, who nevertheless has seen his finishing speed over both the 100 and 200 atone for any shortcomings.

Jeremy Wariner ended his Golden League season with a fifth victory over 400 meters, but his loss to fellow American LaShawn Merritt at the opening meeting in Berlin meant a share of the IAAF $1 million jackpot was never in the cards.

That bonus was won by Olympic 800 meter champion Pamela Jelimo, who, with the rest of the field over 10 meters behind, powered away from pacemaker Svetlana Klyuka to continue her summer's unbeaten record in a meet record time of one minute, 55.16 seconds.

Blanka Vlasic, who lost her Olympic high jump title to Tia Hellebaut in Beijing, was the only other contender for the jackpot, but saw her hopes wrecked after losing out on countback.

The 24-year-old Croatian was beaten by Germany's Ariane Friedrich.

Both cleared a height of 2.00 meters, as did home favorite Hellebaut, but the German had the fewest failures.

Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva entered the competition with the bar at 4.72 meters and won with a second-time clearance, as all of her opponents had already exited at lower heights.

Isinbayeva herself was well below the world record form which saw her retain her Olympic crown with a height of 5.05.

The Russian failed with all three attempts at 4.85 to complete an sub par night for all the vaulters.

Olympic bronze medallist Meseret Defar seemed to have the 5,000 meters all sewn up after moving a few strides clear of Vivian Cheruiyot halfway down the home straight.

But her Kenyan rival found some reserves of speed to power ahead of the Ethiopian favorite and win by nine-hundredths of a second in a meeting record of 14 minutes, 25.43 seconds.