Asafa Powells on

Sluggish Jamaican betters Gay’s timing by 0.05 seconds

OSAKA: World record-holder Asafa Powell clocked better timing than Tyson Gay as their long-awaited 100 metres battle got under way on Saturday. The Jamaican ran 10.01 seconds in the second round, outstripping Gay’s 10.06 with the evening’s quickest time.

Powell described his night’s work, which followed a sluggish 10.34 in the morning heats, as ‘good.’ “It was as I expected nothing else. All is going according to my plans,” he said. But Gay, who has predicted Powell’s 9.77 record will fall on the lightning Osaka track, said he was affected by Olympic silver medallist Francis Obikwelu’s disqualification in the morning heats.

“Obikwelu getting out because of a false start this morning made me think too much at the start. So this is why I did not get out of the blocks well,” he said. “I know that if I want to beat Powell in the semifinal or in the final, my start will have to be much better. I will have to make some adjustments. The speed’s there if I just execute my start I will be ready for tomorrow.”

Both men are unbeaten and are yet to face each other this year, with Gay the man in form after his season-leading 9.84 in June. Powell has been affected by knee tendonitis and a groin injury but bounced back to time 9.90 last month in Rome, the second best this year. The Jamaican burst from the blocks in his evening heat and led all the way before slowing up at the line, with Bahamanian Derrick Atkins in hot pursuit.

Gay took 30 metres to get in front after his slow start but won the heat by a distance from Britain’s Marlon Devonish (10.13). Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles and Britain’s Craig Pickering also won their heats with another Britain, Mark Lewis-Francis, and Kim Collins from St Kitts and Nevis among the other qualifiers for Sunday’s semifinal.

Earlier Gay had raved about the Nagai Stadium surface after coasting through his opening heat in 10.19. “It’s the best track I’ve ever been on. I couldn’t really run slow, it was kind of hard,” he said. “Words cannot describe the track. I tried to run 10.2 or 10.3 but the track wouldn’t allow me to do it.”

Gay is aiming to become only the third 100-200 double world champion after compatriots Maurice Greene in 1999 and Gatlin in 2005. Powell, 24, broke Tim Montgomery’s world mark of 9.78 in 2005 and equalled the time twice last year. Only reigning world and Olympic champion Justin Gatlin, who failed a doping test last year, has run as fast.

The Jamaican caused a stir this week when he admitted interrupting his training regimen with a late night on the tiles.