Asafa Powell

Asafa Powell, the world's fastest man
If ever a young Caribbean man has lived up to the promise of his first name it is Asafa Powell. It means “rising to the occasion”. But in his native Jamaica, and for thousands of athletic fans, the majestic sprinter should have been renamed “Afaster”....

But the rising to the occasion is hardly the way to describe his bolting into world sports pages. He was disqualified for a false start in the 2003 World Championships semi-final, and even then he was overshadowed by Jon Drummond who refused to leave the track over his own disqualification.

Powell next clocked in as one of the gold medal favorites for the Athens Olympic sprint, after equalling the record for the number of sub-10-second times in a season – nine. But at the end of line lay disappointment – fifth in the final.

A year came consolation on his return to the Greek city: he broke the 100 metres world record in a time of 9.77 s, eclipsing the American Tim Montgomery's 2002 record by just one one-hundredth of a second.

Better days lay ahead. In a 100 metres final that saw two disqualifications, three false starts and a sprinter running into another competitor's lane while looking at the scoreboard (Asafa), he won the 2006 Commonwealth Games title. He was later judged not to have impeded the other runner.

And the drama did not stop there. On May 12, 2006, the American Justin Gatlin ran what appeared to one-hundredth of a second faster than Powell at 9.7660. But International Amateur Athletic Federation rules, Gatlin’s 9.7660 should have been rounded off to the nearest hundred – meaning that for three months Gatlin and Powell shared the record of 9.77 seconds. A failed drug test by the American in April 2006 restored Powell to the top of the world sprint heap.

He then equalled his world record time a month later on June 11, 2006 at Gateshead International Stadium - 0.7629 rounded off to 9.77. Two months and seven days later, he repeated the world record time of 9.77 for the third time in Zurich, Switzerland.

To date, Asafa Powell has risen to the occasion of running the 100 metres under 10 seconds - 25 times, three fewer than Trinidadian great Ato Boldon. But he is the only man to have run legally under 9.80 seconds three times and under ten seconds 12 times in a season.

And he continues to train in his native Jamaica, running bare foot on grass, while all around him, some of his biggest competitors - Gatlin, Tim Montgomery - lose the race, not against the swift but against doping.

On November 12, 2006, the IAAF acclaimed Asafa Powell the Male World Athlete of the year and given a US$100,000 cheque.

The world’s fastest man has not only risen to the occasion, he seems eager to overtake each one.

CMC