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Asafa Powell
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Asafa Powell is a testimony to the sporting prowess of Jamaica in Athletics. He has demonstrated the spirit, passion and integrity of a true Jamaican. Of course, I am proud to include him on my Top 30 most famous people from Jamaica.
He was going to be an electrical engineer before he decided to start running. His elder brother Donovan was a 100m semi-finalist in the 1999 world championships for Jamaica. Unlike many of his compatriots, Powell decided against moving to the USA to further his career and continues to train here in Jamaica where he often runs on grass wearing "flats" (non spiked running shoes).
Asafa Powell first came to the attention of the athletics world at the 2003 world championships when he suffered the ignominy of being the 'other' athlete disqualified for a false start in the semi-final where Jon Drummond memorably refused to leave the track having suffered the same fate (Drummond was later proved to have not false started).
The following season he was one of the gold medal favorites for 2004 Olympic 100m, after clocking sub-10 second times a record-equaling 9 times in a season. However, Powell finished a disappointing fifth in the Athens final.
The following year, he gained some consolation by breaking the 100m world record, in Athens on June 14, 2005, setting a time of 9.77 s. This beat American Tim Montgomery's 2002 record of 9.78 s (which was later annulled due to BALCO doping allegations against Montgomery) by just one one-hundredth of a second.
Coincidentally, Asafa Powell achieved the feat on the same track as Maurice Greene's 1999 world record of 9.79 s. Wind assistance for Powell was measured at 1.6 m/s - a gentle breeze - within the IAAF legal limit of 2.0 m/s.
Asafa won the 2006 Commonwealth Games title easily but had to get through a drama-filled semi-final which saw two disqualifications, three false starts and Powell himself running into another competitor's lane while looking at the scoreboard (he was held not to have impeded the other runner).
Powell's world record appeared to be broken on May 12, 2006 by Justin Gatlin's mark of 9.76 s +1.7m/s wind. However, according to IAAF rules, his unofficial time of 9.7660 should have been rounded to an official time of 9.77, not 9.76. By then Gatlin and Powell shared the record of 9.77 seconds.
Asafa Powell then equaled his world record time on June 11, 2006 at Gateshead International Stadium with a time of 9.77 (+1.5 m/s). On August 18 2006, Powell ran the world record time of 9.77 +1.0m/s wind for the third time in Zurich, Switzerland.
On September 9, 2007 he 'wowed' the athletics world again, after he smashed the world record, recording an amazing 9.74 seconds in Rieti, Italy.
This came after a disappointing 3rd in the world championships only a week before in Osaka, Japan.
His run of 9.74sec (+1.7m/s wind) came in the heats before he backed it up with a 9.78sec run in the final.
"Today I proved to the world that Asafa is back," he said. "I made some mistakes in Osaka, I was too tense, but today I competed as I normally should do."
Together with Jeremy Wariner (400 m) and Sanya Richards (400 m) he won his sixth out of six Golden League events (100 m) in the same season, which earned him a total of $250,000. On November 12 2006 he was awarded the title of 2006 Male World Athlete of the Year along with a cheque for $100,000.
Like many who preceded him on the world stage, he made us proud-again. From all of us here in Jamaica, thank you Asafa Powell!
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