Jamaica struck double gold yesterday when home-grown world record holder Asafa Powell, and SheriAnn Brooks swept the coveted 100 metres for men and women at the 18th Commonwealth Games in Melbourne Australia.
Powell earned his first gold medal at a major international meet, winning the Commonwealth Games 100-metre title in 10.03 seconds.Brooks, primarily a 200 metre specialist set a personal best of 11.19 seconds to comfortably win her final, allowing the sound of the Jamaican anthem to ring out twice in quick succession at the Melbourne venue in front of 79,000 people.
World-record holder Powell ran the fastest time ever in Melbourne: doing it twice in 2 1/2 hours and completing a golden double for Jamaica in the 100s.
Although he qualified with the fastest time, Powell was lucky to make the final. He drifted into an adjoining lane as he crossed the finish in the semifinals in 10.03, but officials ruled that he did not impede Canada's Anson Henry.
"It's all over now and I'm the gold medalist ? it's great," said Powell, who set the world record of 9.77 seconds in Athens, Greece, last June 14.
Powell's Jamaican teammate Brooks won almost as dominant in the women's dash, finishing with a comfortable gap over South Africa's Geraldine Pillay (11.31)
"I'm real proud of her ... a Jamaican double is great," said Powell. Despite owning the world record, critics had accused Powell of choking in finals.
He ran a sub-10-second race in the 2004 Olympics at Athens and then finished fifth in the final.
He missed the world championships at Helsinki, Finland last August with a groin injury and was making his comeback in Melbourne to a major international competition.
Powell didn't look like he hit full speed on Monday but he didn't need to ? he got his strategy right.
"Actually, I wanted to get it over with," said Powell, adding he didn't want to over-exert himself too early in his comeback. "Further on in the season, I'll try for the record."
"It feels real good. I can't get over it. I ran pretty easy and I got the gold medal."
