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The expected epic
meeting between the three fastest men in the world in the 100m: Usain
Bolt, world record holder, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell will go ahead in
Stockholm but without Powell, who had to withdraw because of an injury.

The Jamaican
runner, who was the holder of the world record before his compatriot,
Bolt took over had to pull out of today’s race because of injuries, his
management company have said.

“On Wednesday
morning, Asafa tested himself with starts from blocks and was just
unable to push from the blocks without severe pain,” said a statement
on his management’s site (Doyle Management Group) – doylemanagement.com.

Reacting to the
issue of the injuries, Powell said: “I am absolutely devastated. I have
been running very well and I was hoping that I would be in the race
with a solid chance to win,” said Powell, the former 100 metres world
record holder. Powell has run the fastest time in 2010 with Bolt at
9.82 seconds.

The whole athletics
world had been looking forward to the race and there were expectations
that the world record (9.58 seconds) could be lowered. Bolt and Gay
will now be looked upon to give master performances to lower the time
set during the 2008 Olympic Games by Bolt.

The Paris injury

Powell said he may
have risked running in the race but there were no guarantees that he
would have been able to finish. “The way I have been feeling I know it
would be difficult to even finish the race.” Gay has run a personal
best of 9.69 seconds and has been quoted over his huge urge to be the
first athlete to beat Bolt. Last year Gay also struggled with a groin
injury but still equalled the second fastest time ever over 100 metres
with 9.69 seconds at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix and is now
confident he can challenge Bolt’s World Record of 9.58 seconds.

Gay told the BBC in
March, “It’s motivation for me. If he wasn’t on the scene, my mind-set
wouldn’t be to run 9.5 so I think he has helped the sport tremendously.
“That’s my goal (9.58) and I’m focusing on running pretty fast this
year.” Powell suffered a groin injury in Paris last month and since
then other niggling injuries have surfaced that have culminated in his
missing this epoch occasion. The problem, described as a tightness and
severe pain, prevented him from training for about 10 days after Paris.
Powell continued: “As the groin injury healed over the ensuing days, a
back and hamstring problem developed.” The pain has since eased but he
has been unable to train at maximum effort.

Bolt beat Powell to
win the 100m at the Diamond League event in Paris in a time of 9.84
seconds. But he had to recover from a poor start to outsprint Powell in
9.91s but he was not satisfied with his overall performance. “I didn’t
feel as powerful as I wanted to out of the blocks. I need to go home
and work on that.” If the homework is properly done, by the end of the
day, Bolt may have another moniker apart from “Lightening Bolt”.