Safa moves closer to magical 100

ZURICH, Switzerland:

Ninety-seven and counting.

Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell drew closer to that magical century of sub-10 seconds clockings in the 100m after a 9.94 seconds win at the Zurich Diamond League yesterday.

The win was made even sweeter with the 33 year-old pocketing the US$40,000 cash prize and Diamond League trophy in the event after getting the better of South African Akani Simbine and Cote d'Ivoire's Ben Youssef Meite.

"Kingston, Jamaica, that's where I would want to get the 100," Powell told The Gleaner after his win.

It's an unlikely thought.

Powell will compete in Zagreb on September 6 before moving to France where he will run in Marseille on the September 13 with a couple of other dates likely to pop up before the end of the season.

"I would love to do it at home in front of our crowd but it's kinda far, I won't run there in a while and I have a few races lined up before that happens," said Powell.

HIGHPOINT

Yesterday's win was the high point of a season that at times has been miserable with Powell failing to qualify to run an individual event at the Olympic Games, where he did, however, help Jamaica to a gold medal in the 4x100m relay.

"I am very pleased with the win tonight, I was quite confident, I was feeling good before the race. I got out of the starting blocks, I stumbled a bit and I had to really run hard in the middle of the race but in all it was comfortable," said Powell, who first clocked a hand-timed 9.9 while competing in Spanish Town in 2003 before going on to dip below 10.00 seconds in nine of his 15 races the following year.

"I really wanted to go sub-10, that was my real focus tonight and I managed to pull it off," he added before making his choice when asked if he preferred 'number 97' or the US$40,000.

"The sub-10 all the way! That's the title that I have right now and I am going to try and keep adding to it and put the barrier very high so it's hard to reach," added Powell.