Asafa Powell was the class of the men’s 100m field and in the end he delivered.

The former World record holder continued his late season momentum, winning unpressed in 9.88, a impressive performance given the rapidly cooling and damp conditions. Clearly ahead some 20 metres to the finish, Powell never looked back en route to his sixth sub-9.90 dash in the last 14 days.

“First I was a little afraid to get hurt today,” he said, referring the chill that enveloped Mercedes Benz Stadium today. “But I knew I was going to run really fast. I just went out of the blocks and I did it.”

Powell will race once more, in Poland, before wrapping up his season and returning home to Jamaica.

Not surprisingly, Powell led a Jamaican streak across the line, with Nesta Carter and Michael Frater, both members of the 4x100m Relay World record-setting squad in Beijing, taking second and third respectively, clocking 10.07 and 10.10. Illustrating the gap Jamaica seems to have on the rest of the world at the moment, no others managed to dip under 10.20. 2003 World champion Kim Collins was closest, running 10.22 just ahead of Trinidad’s March Burns, who was credited with the same time.

Bob Ramsak