Tyson Gay wins 100m at Athletics World Cup

ATHENS: American sprinter Tyson Gay clinched gold in the men's 100m, clocking 9.88 seconds at the 10th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Cup, and his compatriot Sanya Richards broke the 22-year-old American 400m record.

Thanks to the absence of the world record co-holder Asafa Powell, who chose to run only in the relay, Gay ran very close to his personal best of 9.85 on Saturday. The world record is 9.77.

The 24-year-old's time of 9.88 into a 1.1 metre per second headwind was enough to see off European champion Francis Obikwelu and Trinidadian Mark Burns.

In the men's relay, Powell almost saw some action in the 4x100m relay but his teammates dropped the baton before it reached him.

The World Cup brings together teams from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania and the US plus three European nations - Russia (men and women), France (men), and Poland (women) who qualified via the European Cup - plus hosts Greece.

Another American, Lashawn Merrit, reversed last weekend's result in Stuttgart when he beat African champion Gary Kikaya in the 400m, while Kerron Clement took advantage of the absence of European champion Pericles Iakovakis - absent due to a hamstring injury - to win the 400m hurdles.

The US completed a sweep of the day's sprint events by taking the short relay with Gay running the final leg.

However, they still finished the first day two points behind Europe who benefited from Ralf Bartel's win in shot put and Tomas Janku's victory in high jump.

Kenyan Alex Kipchircher helped Africa into third place by adding the 1,500m to a long list of successes in 2006.

Saif Saaeed Shaheen, running for Asia, took the 5,000m. The women's competition is evenly balanced with Russia and the Americas level on 65 points, five ahead of Europe.

The Americans had a field day on the track with sprinter Sherone Simpson running 10.97 in the 100m to hold off Torri Edwards, the US replacement for Marion Jones who had decided she was not fit enough to run in Athens.

Cuban Zulia Calatayud came home ahead of the Kenyan Janeth Jepkosgei in the 800m, the second time in a week.

Sanya Richards set a US record in the 400m. Her time of 48.70 seconds broke Valerie Brisco's national record set when she took gold in Los Angeles in 1984.

"I was just overwhelmed. I can't believe it is a national record. I am so happy," said Richards, whose time was the fastest in the world since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva had arguably the most comfortable evening, needing just one jump to win the women's pole vault at a height of 4.60m.

Isinbayeva, however, looked extremely disappointed at not being able to raise the bar immediately to five metres and failed three times at 4.80m as she challenged her world record.

Fellow Russian Tatyana Lebedeva edged Greece's Hrysopiyi Devetzi in the triple jump as both cleared 15m.