Saturday, September 2, 2006

by Luke Phillips

BERLIN, Germany (AFP): The world's fastest man, Asafa Powell, heads into the season's sixth and final Golden League meet here Sunday in full knowledge he will be a richer man when he leaves Germany.

The Jamaican is one of four athletes, along with American 400m duo Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards, and Ethiopian 5000m runner Tirunesh Dibaba, who have already secured a share of a 500,000-dollar purse for winning the first five races of the summer.

In Berlin they will try to claim something from an additional 500,000 dollars which is on offer for those achieving a perfect series of six wins.

"Powell will try to get a share of the jackpot while trying to set a new record or at least equal his mark of 9.77sec," said meet organiser Gerhard Janetzky.

In a season marred by the doping scandals surronding Powell's arch-rival Justin Gatlin, and fellow American Marion Jones, the Jamaican has offered a shining light for the track and field.

Although Powell ran "only" 10.02sec in Wednesday's Pedro's Cup in Poland, he has clocked up 10 sub-10sec races this year, beating the previous record set by former Olympic and world champion Maurice Greene of the United States in 1999.

He has blitzed his rivals, and won in Brussels last week despite a horrendous start he blamed on a trigger-happy starter, which saw him three metres down on his opponents within the first 30m.

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