LAST WEEKEND'S Inter-national Athletics Association Federation's (IAAF) World Athletics Gala held in Monaco was a huge success.

An audience of more than 600 guests, which included nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis, was welcomed by IAAF honorary president, Prince Albert II of Monaco, and IAAF president Lamine Diack.

Many other world's top athletics stars, past and present, who packed into the Salle des Etoiles of the Sporting Club d'Eté in Monte Carlo, were entertained by Cuba's legendary Orchestra Aragn before and after the awards were handed out for Male and Female Athletes of the Year, Performance of the Year, Rising Star, Coaches' Awards, Newcomer of the Year, Hero of Athletics Award and others.

However, as a Jamaican in attendance, I was a little disappointed. Why? Because our hero, star, friend and role model, world 100m record holder Asafa Powell, was not present.

He was not there to collect his Performance of the Year award for his sizzling 9.74 run in Rieti, Italy, in September, but that was not the only thing the star sprinter missed. He also missed seeing what could be deemed a music video put together by the IAAF in what I was told was a surprise.

Now, if you did not know, Konscious did a song about Asafa Powell, which starts ... "Straight away you know he is the fastest man on the planet ... 9.77 seconds, how did not do it".

"I love how the yute run, gone Asafa, gone Asafa, gone Asafa ... I love how the yute run, gone Asafa, gone Asafa, speedily ... there he goes, he knows he is the fastest man, nobody could not run past this man ... every girl in the world want to endorse this man," was the song mixed in with video clips of Powell running the world record and at training and other meets.

Criticisms

Powell, it was said, missed the event because he was unable to acquire a visa on time as he was already in the process of applying for a Chinese visa.

Puting that aside, some criticised the IAAF for giving Powell the award over Ethi-opia's Haile Gebrselassie.

A story posted on Timma Times website on November 27 said the news that the Ethiopian Olympic champion and record holder had been snubbed by the IAAF annual awards was shocking to many of his countrymen.

"Ironically, Haile broke the gruelling marathon world record by more than 20 seconds by finishing it in two hours, four minutes, 26 seconds. But instead of Haile taking the award, once again IAAF snubbed another Ethiopian athlete by giving the award to Asafa Powell, the 100m runner from Jamaica," it said.

Apart from that writer, two others, from England and Kenya, who were sitting at my table during the gala, also believed Gebrselassie should have been chosen. Their point was almost the same - they believed Asafa may have had 20 chances at his record while Gebrselassie, because it was a marathon, could not have more than three.

They also believed that the 100m world record was not only held by Powell, but it has been broken several times in the past 10 years.

None of those points convinced me that Powell didn't deserve the prize.

Personally, I agree with the writer that the decision to give Powell the award is debatable, but I still agree that right man was chosen, not only because the 100m is the world's flagship event, but because he shaved three hundredths of a second of the previous 9.77, literally dragging the last 15.

Powell truly deserve this award, and now I can publicly say, well done, Asafa, and continue the good work.

anthony.foster@gleanerjm.com