Powell leads trio of Golden winners

ASAFA POWELL, Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards made it six Golden League wins out of six in Berlin yesterday to earn a cash bonus of $250,000 each.

Powell, the world record holder from Jamaica, won the 100m in 9.86 seconds from American Tyson Gay.

American Wariner, the 400m World and Olympic champion, held off Congo’s Gary Kikaya to win in 44.26secs.

Richards, another American, won the women’s 400m in 49.81secs in front of a 48,000 crowd at the Olympiastadion.

Richards finished just over a second in front of Dee Dee Trotter.

The trio share a $500,000 (€389,000) purse, working out at $166,666 (€129,801) apiece, for winning all six of their races in the Golden League meetings provided they appear at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart next weekend.

They will add that to one-sixth shares in a separate $500,000 (€389,000) jackpot for athletes winning their events in at least five of the six meetings.

Tirunesh Dibaba, who was also in line for the double jackpot going into the Berlin meet, was edged out by world-record holder Meseret Defar in a thrilling finish to the women’s 5,000m.

Dibaba held a slight lead going down the final straight, but a devastating late kick form her Ethiopian compatriot Defar saw her take the lead inside the final 10 metres.

Dibaba had to settle for the $83,333 (€64,895) on offer for five wins.

Two other athletes clinched shares of that part of the pot when they recorded their fifth victories on Sunday.

Panama’s Irving Saladino claimed his prize in the long-jump with a first round leap of 8.35m while Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele won the 5,000m.

Britain’s Tim Don overcame defending champion Hamish Carter to win the World Triathlon Championship in Lausanne.

Don was too strong for his New Zealand rival, who finished runner-up some 11 seconds behind, with France’s Frederic Belaubre third in Switzerland.

Emma Snowsill led Australia to victory in the women’s event.