Asafa Powell runs fastest 100m of year

JAMAICA'S Asafa Powell ran the fastest 100 metres of the year as he won at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne last night.

Powell was clear favourite for the race with American Tyson Gay injured and Usain Bolt choosing to skip the meeting in Switzerland.

And Powell charged out of the blocks to win in 9.78 seconds, one hundredth of a second better than Gay's time in Florida earlier this month.

Fellow Jamaican Michael Frater finished a further 0.10 seconds behind while European champion Christophe Lemaitre recovered from a poor start to take third in 9.95. That equalled the French record but wasn't enough to trouble Powell.

In the 800m, world record holder David Rudisha of Kenya comfortably won the event in his first Diamond League race of the summer, having missed part of the season with an ankle injury.

Olympic silver medallist Sally Pearson of Australia set a personal best as she won the women's 100 metres hurdles in 12.47 seconds, holding off Danielle Carruthers of the United States, who finished just one hundredth of a second behind.