Powell wins 100 metres, Bekele beaten

Joint world record holder Asafa Powell raced to victory in 9.98 seconds over 100 metres at the Bislett Games Golden League meeting on Friday. However, Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele's hopes of a Golden League clean sweep in the distance events were ended when the world record holder was beaten by Kenyan Isaac Songok.

The upset in Oslo was Kenenisa Bekele's first loss outdoors since he finished second in the 5,000 metres at the 2004 Olympic Games.

Isaac Songok, who was 10th at the World Championships last year, took command of the race with 200 metres to go, winning in 12 minutes 55.79 seconds, a world-leading performance.

Bekele failed to muster his devastating kick and was a distant second in 12:58.22.

"I didn't think it was possible to win this race," 22-year-old Songok told reporters. "Now I am ready for the big upcoming races."

Powell's victory was as overwhelming as the Jamaican sprinter and others had expected.

"Normally, I would win my races by five metres or so, but tonight it really wasn't anything spectacular," said Powell, whose world mark of 9.77 was equalled last month by American Justin Gatlin.

Powell, who won his qualifying race in 9.96 seconds, said he made some mistakes in the second half of the race when American Shawn Crawford, Gatlin's training partner, crept up on him in the adjacent lane.

Crawford, the Olympic 200 metres champion, finished second in 10.02 seconds.

Powell was not sure when he would race Gatlin but his manager Paul Doyle indicated that the pair would probably not meet at the Athens Super Grand Prix on July 3, dispelling recent rumours.

Aside from Songok's time, five other world-leading performances were set in the first leg of the IAAF Golden League Series on a pleasant if slightly chilly evening.

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the women's 5,000 metres in 14:30.40, the ninth fastest performance of all time. Alex Kipchirchir of Kenya won the mile in 3:50.32, out-kicking Ukraine's Ivan Heshko.

American Sanya Richards took the women's 400 metres in 49.82, more than a second ahead of runner-up Shericka Williams of Jamaica.

In the men's 800 metres Mohammed Al-Azimi of Kuwait maintained his world lead with a dramatic 1:44.59 victory, just ahead of Dmitrijs Milkevics of Latvia.

In the men's javelin, Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway won the event with a national record of 91.59m to become the event's sixth farthest thrower.

The Bislett Games were the first of the six Golden League meetings which will be followed by the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart on September 9-10.

With no global championships scheduled for 2006, Powell can now concentrate on the Golden League and the chance to lift a cheque for one million dollars in Berlin on September 3.

An outright winner of one of the 11 designated Golden League events at each of the six meetings will collect the jackpot while two or more will share it.

This year for the first time, in recognition of the difficulty of winning six events in a row, athletes who win five races will share a purse of $500,000.