The main photo above shows Asafa during the heats of the mens 100m at
the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Powell qualified comfortably enough
but the final itself would prove to be a huge disappointment, with Asafa
managing only a 5th place finish in a time of 9.95secs.
.
The
inset picture above shows the closing few metres of the final with
Powell (far left) being run out of the bronze medal position by Walter
Dix, who is in the all blue kit alongside him. Richard Thompson (all
red) won the silver and the gold, of course, went to Powell's Jamaican
team mate Usain Bolt in a sensational new WR time of 9.69secs. The build
up to the final had focused on a shoot-out between the two Jamaicans
but it was Bolt who stole the show, with Asafa left to reflect on
another failure at a major global championship.
.
Powell
later commented: "I messed up big time, my legs died on me. Usain ran an
awesome race, I'm very happy for him. I'm not sure what happened, I
just have to be happy for Usain. It's a sad time for me, I really wanted
to get that gold medal. But it's quite obvious I wasn't ready for the
big stage yet." Powell would, however, gain more than a little
consolation when he teamed up with Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and that
man Bolt to strike gold for Jamaica in the 4x100m relay in a new World
Record time of 37.10secs.
|
.
Men's 4x100m. Relay Final. 2008 Olympic Games
1. Jamaica (Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Usain Bolt,
Asafa Powell)
37.10 WR
2. T&T (Keston Bledman, Marc Burns, Emmanuel Callender, Richard Thompson) 38.06
3. Japan (Naoki Tsukahara, Shingo Suetsugu, Shinji Takahira, Nobuharu Asahara) 38.15
.
| |
| Men's 100m. Final. 2008 Olympic Games |
| 1. Usain BOLT |
|
JAM |
|
9.69 WR |
| 2. Richard THOMPSON |
|
TRI |
|
9.89 |
| 3. Walter DIX |
|
USA |
|
9.91 |
| 4. Churandy MARTINA |
|
AHO |
|
9.93 |
| 5. Asafa POWELL |
|
JAM |
|
9.95 |
| 6. Michael FRATER |
|
JAM |
|
9.97 |
| 7. Marc BURNS |
|
TRI |
|
10.01 |
| 8. Darvis PATTON |
|
USA |
|
10.03 |
| |