Powell RIETI, Italy (CMC):
The powerful Jamaican sprint ace Asafa Powell believes his fourth world-record run on Sunday at the Rieti International meet reinforces his quality as a top sprinter.
Powell caused a huge let-down for his fans when he flopped to a third-place finish at last month's World Championship and he feels his majestic win in 9.74 seconds on Sunday, proved - in his words - that 'Asafa is back'.
Under pressure to win a major global title that has eluded him to this point in his career in spite of numerous tremendous world-best performances, Powell blamed his loss in Osaka on 'nervousness' and 'mistakes' during the race.
In only a qualifying heat on Sunday, Powell sliced 0.03 seconds off his own previous best of 9.77 seconds, which he has run on three occasions.
Aided by a legal 1.7 metres-per-second following wind, Powell finished ahead of Gambia-born Saidy Ndure Jaysuma and St. Kitts and Nevis' former world champion Kim Collins, who recorded 10.07 seconds and 10.14 seconds, respectively.
Powell tried Sunday to play down his latest achievement as a make-up for his frustrations in Osaka and focused on his bid to re-establish his scratched label as the world's best.
"I will not say today (world record) was a revenge after (the disappointment of) Osaka. There, the expectations were too high," he said.
In Osaka, the outstanding American Tyson Gay dominated the much-anticipated showdown to beat Powell, who even lost silver to the rising Bahamian star Derrick Atkins, his cousin.
"I thought too much about the world record, but I have done a lot of work in the last two weeks (since the Osaka 100 metres). I learned again to run from the start and to be more relaxed," he added, Sunday.
Powell burst onto the international scene in 2003 when - as a little-known runner - he ran the fastest time (10.03 seconds) in the 100-metre heats at the Paris World Championship but was disqualified in the quarter-finals for false-starting.
He believes he can run even faster than the current world mark.
In the final Sunday evening, a mere hour and 15 minutes after his world record run, Powell clocked a fast 9.78 seconds to win, defeating his Jamaican training partner Michael Frater (10.03) and Ndure (10.10).
He expressed mild regret that he did not go faster on Sunday.
"Today I could have run under 9.70. I would have loved to have run 9.68. When I ran 9.77 twice last year, I always thought I could have run faster," he said.
"If I had had a more favourable tail wind in the final (today, 9.78) I could have run faster. The atmosphere was so special. I have a special relationship with Italy as this is where I am based for training each summer," added Powell, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion.
Both Gay and Powell are scheduled to compete at Friday's IAAF Golden League meeting in Brussels, but it has not yet been confirmed whether they will go head-to-head.
