Powell: My legs could not bring back the 6.44

The frustration with Asafa Powell's inability to deliver an individual gold medal at the highest level of track-and-field competition is not limited to Jamaicans, it seems.

There were audible sighs and other expressions of exasperation as the Jamaican posted 6.50 seconds to finish second in the men's 60m at the IAAF World Indoor Championships at the Oregon Convention Centre on Friday evening.

All day, the former 100m world-record holder had been in stellar form, posting a season's best and world-leading 6.44 seconds to win the first-round heat as well as semi-final.

However, the athlete, whose best finish at a World Championships or Olympics has been third, was unable to deliver yet again on Friday as the United States' Trayvon Bromell bolted to the finish in 6.47 seconds.

There was some confusion as St Kitts and Nevis' Kim Collins was initially credited with second and Barbados' Ramon Gittens with third.

POWELL SECOND

After some delay and examination of the photo-finish camera, Powell was credited with second.

"I was sure I was in second place. I had to run back to second, but I was sure I got second," Powell said.

"The start wasn't as good as the first two rounds. Bromell got a perfect start. He got a flyer and I think that kind of threw me of a bit in the mid part of the race and he got away a bit too far," he added.

However, Powell tried to explain the silver-medal finish after such promise earlier as journalists queried what happened and attributed part of the problem to running three rounds in one day.

"I'm happy with the medal. I'm not overly excited, but I'm happy with the medal because if I had run back my 6.44, I would have been in the gold medal. I don't know if I could have done anything different. Maybe postpone it until tomorrow (yesterday), so I could get some rest. It was a very, very hard day and (my) legs were tired," he said.

Powell himself sounded disappointed and unable to determine the cause of his inability to break his glass ceiling.

"I was just wondering what did I do wrong in the first part. It just happened so fast. It was a very good race. Bromell ran a very good race. He got a personal best. It was so easy, but three rounds in one day, my legs just couldn't bring back the 6.44.