JAMAICAN sprinter Asafa Powell ran the second fastest 100m of the year to win the Diamond League meeting in Paris. Powell ran a season’s best 9.81m to beat France’s Jimmy Vicaut, who equalled the European record of 9.86.
The 32-year-old Powell beat the 9.84 he ran in June’s Jamaican national trials.
American Justin Gatlin has run the fastest time of the year at 9.74. Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce made it a double for Jamaica with victory in the women’s 100m
Usain Bolt, who missed the Paris meet through injury, also withdrew from the Diamond League race in Lausanne on 9 July because of a pelvic injury, but the 28-year-old says he will defend his 100m and 200m titles at August’s World Championships in China.
In the women’s 100m Fraser-Pryce ran 10.74, the fastest time in the world this year, beating her own mark set at the Jamaican trials.
New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams suffered her first loss in almost five years of competition as she made her comeback from a double shoulder injury at the Stade de France. It ended a run of 56 successive victories for the 30-year-old, dating back to August 2010.
The double Olympic and four-time world champion had last competed in the 2013 Brussels Diamond League.
She then had surgery to repair her left, non-throwing shoulder and right elbow in September 2014.
Adams finished fifth in Paris, behind Germany’s Christina Schwanitz, who won with a personal best of 20.31m.
“I’m happy to be back,” Adams said. “I took the risk and came to compete against the best current girls.
“I knew the winning streak was in danger and I lost it, but I do not feel that sorry. We can start again.” (BBC Sport)