STOCKHOLM, (Reuters) – Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt and top sprint rivals Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell will meet for the first time this year in a 100 metres showdown at the Stockholm Diamond League meeting next week.
The clash on Aug. 6 will be the first including Jamaican Bolt, American Gay and Bolt’s compatriot Powell since they took gold, silver and bronze at the 2009 Berlin world championships, meeting director Rajne Soderberg told Reuters yesterday.
It will match the three fastest men of all-time with Bolt the world record holder at 9.58 seconds, followed by Gay (9.69) and Powell (9.72).
“The last time Usain ran here Asafa beat him just before the 2008 Beijing Olympics,” Soderberg said by telephone. “I think it was the only (100 metres) race he has lost in his (professional) life so he probably wants to come back for revenge.
Bolt has beaten Gay in both of their 100 metres races. He holds an 8-1 edge over Powell, the loss coming in the 2008 Stockholm meeting.
Weeks later, Bolt set world records in the 100 and 200 and helped Jamaica eclipse the 4×100 record at Beijing. He went on to break both sprint records at last year’s world championships.
Powell and Gay had already been scheduled to take part in the meeting and negotiations to include Bolt began several weeks ago, Soderberg said.
“He (Bolt) had missed a couple of races (with injury) and did not want to run more 200 metres, so it is a great honour to have him. This will increase interest in the meeting for the future and (talk of the race) will linger on for years.”