Asafa Powell to receive Superstar Award
Sub-10 King to be honoured this weekend
Published:Saturday | March 16, 2024 | 12:10 AMAnthony Turner/Gleaner Writer
New York-based Elite Weekend executives have selected ‘Sub-10 King’, Asafa Powell, as the recipient of the 2024 Bleu & Bougie Superstar/Impact Award. The award will be presented today at the upscale Bleu & Bougie/Elite Weekend party series at Devon House in St Andrew.
Bleu & Bougie co-producer Jerry McDonald told The Gleaner that Powell is being honoured for the impact he has made as a Jamaica Olympian and former world record holder.
“We recognise Asafa for setting the 100 metres world record twice, between June 2005 and May 2008 with times of 9.77 and 9.74 seconds and for consistently breaking the 10-second barrier in competition, with a personal best of 9.72 seconds, which ranks fourth on the all-time list of men’s 100-metre athletes” McDonald said.
Powell has broken the 10-second barrier 97 times in the 100m, which is more times than any other athlete.
Sephron Mair, one of the co-producers of the Elite Weekend said, it’s important to give our successful contributors their roses now, rather than wait until they have passed.
“Beside Asafa’s success as a world-class sprinter, Jamaicans in the diaspora are also proud of his philanthropic work with the Asafa Powell Foundation with the theme ‘preparing today’s athletes to be tomorrow’s champions’ and his vision to empower and inspire people globally through education and sports,” he said.
The Sub 10 King joins an elite list of past Bleu & Bougie honourees including Safaree (Lloyd Samuels): Love & Hip Hop, NY TV star; Bounty Killer, international dancehall deejay; Nadine Sutherland, international reggae singer; Cristy Barber, Grammy-nominated music producer and business executive; Kurt Riley, Jamaican broadcaster, producer and elite club disc jock and actor Nick Creagan, whose credits include David Makes Man (Oprah Winfrey network); Law and Order: Organized Crime (NB TV) and Joker in the TV series Batwoman.