Asafa Powell set a world record of 7.74 seconds in the 100 metres at the Rieti Grand Prix meet in Italy last year, and he will be keen to recapture that magic today. - APROME (AP):
ASAFA POWELL has one last chance to salvage his season, and it will come on the same track he set a world record on last year - and without Usain Bolt.
Powell will run the 100 metres today at the Rieti Grand Prix, the small meet in central Italy that he made world famous a year ago by clocking 9.74 seconds.
Both Powell's mark and his dominance in track's signature race were taken away by Bolt this year.
First, Bolt ran 9.72 in New York in May, then he cruised to Olympic gold in Beijing last month in 9.69 to establish the new world record.
Powell finished fifth in the Olympics and was beaten again by Bolt at the Van Damme Memorial in Brussels on Friday. Bolt ran 9.77 and Powell finished second in 9.83 into a strong headwind.
No pressure
Bolt headed home to Jamaica after the race, while Powell turned his thoughts to Raul Guidobaldi stadium.
"He's going to be on his way home, so I told him to be prepared for some bad news," Powell said.
Powell often runs his best when Bolt or other top competitors are not there to put pressure on him. He ran 9.72 in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Tuesday to tie Bolt's performance in New York as the second fastest time ever.
When Powell timed 9.74 in Rieti last year, he did it in a heat and slowed down before the finish - then again pulled up to clock 9.78 in the final. Afterward, he said he was capable of running 9.68, which would eclipse Bolt's mark from Beijing.
Powell will be running against training partners Michael Frater and Nesta Carter. Frater finished sixth in Beijing and he and Carter joined Powell and Bolt on Jamaica's team that set the 400 relay world record in Beijing.
Jamaican women
The three Jamaican women who finished atop the Olympic podium in the 100 will also be in Rieti, with gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser joined by joint silver medallists Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart.
Until Powell's record, Rieti was better known as a track for middle and long-distance runners, with six world records set in those races.
With that in mind, Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia is out to cap her sweep of the 5,000 and 10,000 in Beijing by setting another record in the women's 5,000, which is being run for the first time in Rieti.
Dibaba will attack her own mark of 14:11.15 set in June at the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway. She will be aided in her record attempt by her older sister Ejegayehu - a bronze medallist in the 10,000 at the 2005 World - and 17-year-old Genzebe, the world junior cross country champion and world junior silver medallist in the 5,000.
Olympic champion Wilfred Bungei has entered the men's 800, marking a return to the track where he set his personal best of 1:42.34 in 2002. He'll be joined by Kenyan teammate and world champion Alfred Kirwa Yego, the bronze medallist in Beijing.
The women's 1,500 will feature the gold and silver medallists from Beijing - Nancy Jebet Langat and Iryna Lishchynska. The top two Olympic finishers will also compete in the women's triple jump, with Francoise Mbango Etone of Cameroon again hoping to beat Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia.
