Powell, Wariner and Richards share the jackpot

Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell and American 400m runners Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards blitzed their rivals yesterday to share the Golden League jackpot for a perfect six wins in the six-meet series.

The trio will each take home a cool US$250,000, but will have to compete in the IAAF World Athletics Finals in Stuttgart on Sept 9-10 to be eligible for the prize.

Powell, joint world record holder with drug-tainted American Justin Gatlin, clocked up his record 11th sub-10-second race this year, romping home in a meet record of 9.86, 0.1 second ahead of American Tyson Gay.

There was no repeat of the awful start Powell suffered in Brussels last week, and once he hit his elegant long stride there was no stopping the 23-year-old as he powered away from the field.

“I am sorry for the Berlin audience that I did not run faster,” Powell said, putting his success on the track down to “training a lot and staying healthy”.

Wariner duly wrapped up his perfect six from six in the men’s 400m, producing a strong final bend to outrun pacesetter Lashawn Merritt, who himself was caught by Gary Kikaya of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The 22-year-old, the only athlete to have won two gold medals in both the 2004 Olympics and last year’s World Championships, fell short of his target of another sub-44-second run, timing 44.26.

“It was a tough one but I was able to focus on my race and stay consistent, as I have done the whole season,” said Wariner. “Merritt went fast on the first 200m but I continued to run my own race.”

Richards hit the 300m mark a full 10m up on the field and won comfortably in 49.81 seconds ahead of compatriot Dee Dee Trotter (50.87).

In the hunt for a share of a second pot of US$500,000 for athletes having won five out of six events, there was good news for Kenenisa Bekele and Irving Saladino, who won their 5,000m and long jump events (8.35m) respectively.

But there was heartbreak for Tirunesh Dibaba who lost out on a perfect six as Ethiopian compatriot and Olympic champion Meseret Defar won a frantic sprint of a last lap in the women’s 5,000m to come home in 15:02.51.

“I’m disappointed I lost. But I’m still happy I got part of the jackpot,” the 20-year-old Dibaba said in reference to the US$83,333 she won – as did Bekele and Saladino. – AFP