Nigeria Content Online

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 August
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 on Wednesday.

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.” The three also will meet in the Diamond League
final at Brussels on August 27.

Reuters