Bolt runs 9.77 in cold, wet conditions

BRUSSELS, Belgium

Friday, 05 September 2008 19:30:47

By RAF CASERT - AP Sports Writer

Usain Bolt battled the cold and a headwind, and was forced to come from behind to beat Asafa Powell in 9.77 seconds Friday in a season farewell 100 meters at the Van Damme Memorial.

Running into 1.3 meter-per-second headwind, the Olympic champion had a bad start and immediately saw Powell shoot ahead of him. In his last race of the season, however, nothing was going to stop the world record-holder from spoiling his farewell party in Europe.

Halfway through he pulled even with Powell and then his huge stride took over, finishing just .08 seconds off the world record he set at the Beijing Games.

Powell, the only runner to have beaten Bolt this season, finished second in 9.83. Nesha Carter made it a Jamaican sweep in 10.07.

"Asafa is a really fast guy. I'm getting used to chasing him," Bolt said.

Powell, who had beaten Bolt in Stockholm this summer, took the loss well and celebrated with Bolt along the track, cheered by the sellout crowd of 47,000 at the King Baudouin Stadium.

Bolt said he feared the cold and it was just 59 degrees at the start. Even his trademark showboating moves could not warm him up and when the starting gun went, he froze, getting dead last out of the blocks.

His superiority is such that he can compensate whatever he loses within a mere five seconds. Once Powell saw him next to him, he knew he was done.

"I came out to run fast," Powell said. "Usain really put on the pressure."

Bolt won the 100 and 200 and ran in the Jamaican 400-meter sprint relay, winning three gold medals and setting a world record in each of his races in Beijing.

If it was just a season's farewell for Bolt, it was farewell for good for double European sprint champion Kim Gevaert.

Before an adoring home crowd, she won the 100 in 11.25, hampered by the conditions. She easily beat Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas and Me'Lisa Barber of the United States. Afterward, she was given a minute-long standing ovation by the sellout crowd of 47,000.

On top of her European titles in the 100 and 200 two years ago, Gevaert also anchored the Belgian sprint relay team to a silver medal at the Olympics and bronze at last year's world championships.

Paul Kipsiele Koech failed to qualify for Kenya's Olympic team, but he left Beijing gold medalist Birman Kiprop Kipruto trailing in his wake as took the 3,000 steeplechase in 8:04.99, more than five seconds ahead of his countryman.

With Ethiopian Olympic champion and world record-holder Kenenisa Bekele taking a break, Beijing silver medalist Eliud Kipchoge led a sweep of Kenyans in the 5,000, finishing in the rain in 13:06.12.

In the women's 5,000, Meseret Defar sought to avenge her loss to Ethiopian teammate Tirunesh Dibaba in Beijing by recapturing the world record from her compatriot. Instead, Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya beat her in a sprint finish.