Asafa Powell runs during his record-breaking 100-metre victory at the Athens Super Grand Prix on June 14. Powell clocked 9.77 seconds. - REUTERS
LONDON (AP):
ASAFA POWELL set a world record in the 100 metres, but missed the 2005 World Championships.
Yelena Isinbayeva did compete at the worlds in Helsinki, Finland, and set yet another world record in the pole vault.
Powell ran the 100 in 9.77 seconds on June 14 in Athens, Greece, bettering Tim Montgomery's record by 0.01 seconds.
STRIPPED OF MEDAL
Montgomery was later stripped of his old record and his prize money when the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned him and sprinter Chryste Gaines for two-years for doping.
Neither runner tested positive for drugs, however. They were banned based on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and the testimony of fellow sprinter Kelli White.
Montgomery's former girl-friend, three-time Olympic gold medalist, Marion Jones, competed sparingly with poor results in 2005 and remained under investigation in the BALCO case.
Powell, who missed the worlds because of a groin injury, is only the fourth non-American to hold the 100 world record since 1912.
Donovan Bailey of Canada (1996), Armin Hary of West Germany (1960) and Percy Wig the record on the track where he missed the podium at the Athens Olympics by finishing fifth in 9.94.
Isinbayeva has set 18 world records both indoors and outdoors.
The Russian set records of 4.95 meters, 4.96 and 5.0 in early 2005, but it was her jump of 5.01 metres in windy Helsinki that also gave her a world title. She only needed to clear 4.70 to win the gold medal.
"No limit," the Olympic champion said of her incredible record breaking potential.
Having achieved her goal of reaching the five-metre mark, Isinbayeva is now aiming to break pole vault great Sergei Bubka's career record of 36 world records.
STAR AT HELSINKI
Despite Isinbayeva's showing, American sprinter Justin Gatlin was the star of the Helsinki championships.
He joined Maurice Greene as the only sprinter to sweep the 100 and 200 at the worlds, adding those achievements to the 100 gold and 200 bronze he won in Athens.
Paula Radcliffe, who earlier in the year won the London Marathon, despite stopping briefly with stomach problems, captured her first world title by winning the marathon.
The British runner, who pulled out of both the marathon and the 10,000 at the Athens Olympics, also ran both events in Helsinki.
Radcliffe finished ninth in the 10,000, but insisted the run was good preparation going into the marathon. She proved to be right.
UNPRECEDENTED DOUBLE
Kenenisa Bekele, the world record holder in the 10,000, won that event at the worlds but passed on the chance to go for a double in the 5,000.
In March, Bekele completed an unprecedented fourth straight long-short course double at the World Cross Country Championships, dominating both the four and 12-kilometre events. The meet came just two months after his fiancee had died.
Bekele may have sat out the 5,000 in Helsinki, but Tirunesh Dibaba didn't. The Ethiopian defended her 5,000 title and added the 10,000 - becoming the first woman to win both at the worlds.
"I wanted to win both races and I did. I'm planning to do that next time again," Dibaba said.
Paul Tergat won the New York City Marathon in the race's closest finish, beating defending champion Hendrick Ramaala by a third of a second.
