OSTRAVA, Czech Republic (Sporting Alert) — Former World record holder Asafa Powell, following some chaos, which forced a delayed re-run, put his poor effort at his national trials behind him to win the men’s 100m at the Ostrava Golden Spike – IAAF World Challenge Meeting on Thursday.
Initially, the Jamaican ran 9.97seconds to win at the first sending off, but the race was ordered for a re-run, after a call back, which was missed by several runners, including Powell, who ran up to 85 metres.
In the end, the Cayman Islands’ Kemar Hyman was disqualified for a false start.
The race was pushed back until after the men’s 400m dash, and Powell held off the challenges of Kim Collins to win in 10.06secs.
Finishing behind the 30-year-old was the experienced Collins, who ran 10.08 and American Michael Rodgers (10.16).
Powell finished a disappointing seventh at the Jamaica Championships in 10.22 seconds over the weekend after claiming he was not in race shape, after an injury that setback his season’s training as early as February.
World record holder Usain Bolt pulled out of the meeting this week to concentrate on his preparations for the World Championships in Moscow in August.
Countryman and training partner Yohan Blake was also scheduled to race, but a hamstring problem forced the world champion over 100m to skip the meet.
Olympic and World champion Kirani James of Grenada stormed to victory in the men’s 400m – producing a time of 44.49, which is a new meeting record.
James, who was beaten by American LeShawn Merritt in his last race, pulled away field in the closing 50 or so metres to resume normal survive.
Zuzana Hejnová destroyed a solid field to set a new meeting record and win the women’s 400m hurdles in 53.32secs.
The Czech Republic athlete thrilled the home fans with her dominating run which saw her pulling away from the field in the home straight, with Denisa Rosolova, also from the Czech Republic, taking second in 55.12 and third going to Lauren Boben of Australia in 55.55. Jamaican champion Ristananna Tracey was fourth in 55.98.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Australian Olympic champion Sally Pearson, returning from a quad/hamstring problem, took first place in 12.67 after moving away from the field on the first flight of hurdles.
She was hoping for a time in the 12.50-12.60 range, and will certainly be happy with this run as she continues to prepare for this summer’s World Championships.
Second went to Czech athlete Lucie Škrobákova in 13.02, just head of Jamaica’s Andrea Bliss, who was third in 13.03.
Impressive on the day also was Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia who ran a world-leading and meeting record time of 30:26.67 to take the women’s 10,000m, beating Shalane Flanagan previous world-leading mark of 31:04.85.
The race in Ostrava saw the top five runners going below 31-minutes.
World record holder Yelena Isinbayeva won the women’s pole vault with a clearance of 4.78.
The men’s event was won by Renaud Lavillenie of France cleared 5.92m to set a meeting record and win,
