Gay seals gold in 100m in Osaka
America’s top sprinter prevailed against the Jamaican world record holder in front of a near sell-out crowd at the Nagai Stadium.
Gay crossed the line first in 9.85 seconds, thanks largely to a blistering surge over the final 20 metres.
His change up stunned Commonwealth champion Powell, who, in an effort to kick on himself, seemed to stumble, allowing his second cousin Derrick Atkins to steal silver in 9.91secs.
Powell eventually came in third in 9.96secs.
Gay admitted the high-profile build up to the final had affected his self-belief.
“Normally I have 100% confidence in myself, but today I was a little bit nervous,” he said.
“My mother and (acting coach) Jon Drummond kept telling me ‘Just believe in your top speed’.
“So I stayed relaxed and believed in my top speed even though I had a bad start and Asafa was in front of me. After 60 metres I saw that I could catch him — and it worked. My gold medal feels so good and I am very proud of it.”
On Saturday, Tirunesh Dibaba battled back from the brink of defeat to retain her World Championships 10,000m title. The Ethiopian became involved in some bumping and barging and fell off the pace after 14 laps — at one stage was trailing the leaders by 50 metres.
But Dibaba, who is bidding to match her 5,000m/10,000m double of two years ago in Helsinki, regained contact with nine-and-a-half laps remaining. And after all had seemed lost, she used her renowned finishing speed to score a remarkable victory ahead of Elvan Abeylegesse and Kara Goucher in a time of 31minutes 55.41seconds.
Carolina Kluft continued her stellar dominance of the heptathlon by winning a third consecutive world title. The 24-year-old Swede, who has not lost a combined events competition since 2002, never looked like surrendering that remarkable record.
On the opening day, Kluft had produced personal bests in the 100m hurdles and high jump and the year’s best efforts in the shot put and 200m. Kluft virtually sealed victory at the start of the second session with season’s bests in the long jump and javelin of 6.85m and 47.98m, then placed in the 800m as she became the first woman ever to notch a hat-trick of gold medals, a feat which eluded all-time greats Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Sabine Braun.
Meanwhile, Luke Kibet ended Kenya’s 20-year wait for a men’s world marathon title with a comfortable victory in the first event of the 11th world championships on Saturday.
The 24-year-old prison guard overcame searing heat and high humidity to clinch gold in two hours, 15 minutes and 59 seconds.
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