Skip to main content

Tyson Gay of US stands first in 100 m race in Rome

Saturday, July 11, 2009 ROME: Tyson Gay has scorched to victory in the 100m here in 9.77sec, leaving fierce rival Asafa Powell in his wake as he set the fastest time of the year at the Rome Golden League meeting.Gay's run was his first over the distance this season and proved that the 2007 world champion over 100m and 200m is in scintillating form ahead of the defence of his titles next month.Powell, who had been suffering from an ankle problem recently, ran his best time of the year to come home second in 9.88sec.But it was Gay's race that really set the pulses racing, equalling his own personal best and American record and running 0.09sec faster than Olympic champion Usain Bolt's best time this year.But with just a month to go to the World Championships in Berlin, this race proved that there should be a mouth-watering clash between the three fastest men on the planet.Set alongside Bolt's 9.86sec in Kingston, Jamaica, last month, the times ran by both Gay and Powell here suggest that Bolt's 9.69sec world record could come under serious threat in Germany.Gay's time came despite Daniel Bailey false starting, but he said he wasn't reading too much into it."I've been learning how to refocus at the start (after false starts) and that's what I've done," said the American."I don't know if it is a message to Bolt, it's not 9.69, but I'm pretty sure he knows I'm training and working hard."The men's 100m didn't provide the only fireworks of the night as Jamaican Kerron Stewart also set a world leading time in the women's event, beating Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser into second.Stewart's 10.75sec run was not only a personal best but was only 0.01sec off the Jamaican record and equalled the meeting record set by Marion Jones back in 1998.Fraser finished second in 10.91sec, just outside her previous best of the season of 10.88sec at the Jamaican trials.Stewart's victory kept her on course for a share of the Golden League jackpot of one million dollars.American Sanya Richards is another athlete still in jackpot contention having equalled the record of 36 sub-50sec 400m runs in winning her event in a time of 49.46sec.That matched the achievement set by former East German athlete Marita Koch, although Richards took just five years to reach the mark compared to Koch's nine.Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele also stayed on course for a share of the jackpot after a third successive Golden League victory as he strolled home in the men's 5,000m in a world leading time of 12min 56.23sec.What was so impressive about Bekele's run, a full 19sec off his own world record, was that the next six finishers all set personal bests.Russian golden girl Yelena Isinbayeva was another to keep her jackpot hopes alive, easily winning the women's pole vault.She cleared her first height of 4.75m, which proved enough to claim the victory. She also cleared 4.85m but then failed with her three attempts at 4.95m.Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway put an end to world champion Tero Pitkamaki of Finland's jackpot hopes with a huge last throw in the javelin of 87.46m to snatch victory.Another notable performance was set by Bahrain's Maryam Yusuf Jamal, formerly Zenebech Tola of Ethiopia, who set a world leading 3min 56.55sec in the women's 1,500m.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

US drones to target Taliban in Afghan war

Friday, July 31, 2009 WASHINGTON: The US military plans to use more drone aircraft to target Taliban militants in Afghanistan while focusing less on hunting down Al-Qaeda figures, report said on Thursday.Although defeating the Al-Qaeda terror network remains an overriding goal for Washington, officials now believe the best way to pursue that objective is to ensure stability in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan instead of Al-Qaeda manhunts, the paper said, citing US government and Defense Department officials.It was more important to prevent a slide towards violence and anarchy that could be exploited by Al-Qaeda, which used Afghanistan to stage its attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the officials said."We might still be too focused on Bin Laden," an official said. "We should probably reassess our priorities."The shift in priorities for the drone fleet comes despite President Barack Obama's declaration that defeating and dismantling Al-Qaeda ...