Gay outruns doubts, Powell in 100-meter showdown

Tyson Gay surged past Asafa Powell over the final 40 meters to win in 9.85 seconds. Stu Forster/Getty Images

OSAKA, Japan -- A sprinter writes his legacy in contrary moments, trying to mix desperate athletic passion with the calm required to sustain perfect running technique. The body wants to thrash like a child on the playground, flailing toward the finish line. The mind must make it chill, for thrashing is slow and inefficient and leads to defeat. In fractions of a second, champions are divided from the merely swift.

Thirty meters from the finish of the100-meter final Sunday night at the world track and field championships in Osaka, Japan, Tyson Gay of the U.S. pulled alongside Asafa Powell of Jamaica. The track world has waited all spring and summer for the moment when these two would finally meet. Powell, 24, has run a world record-equalling 9.77 seconds three times since June of 2005; his top-end speed is a wonder to behold.

Gay, 25, is the latest in a long line of brilliant U.S. sprinters, filling the gap left by Justin Gatlin's drug suspension a year ago.

They are the fastest men in the world, yet both came to Japan in search of validation. Powell had finished a disappointing fifth at the 2004 Olympic Games and missed the '05 worlds with an injury. He stood in the media zone after Gatlin won the 100 meters in Helsinki and boldly declared that he would have beaten Gatlin if healthy. Gay, meanwhile, has ascended to the top echelon only in the last two years. In his only previous worlds, he was fourth in the Helsinki 200, behind a medal sweep by his countrymen.

Here then, they were divided. Gay ripped past Powell as they moved into the final 30 meters. Powell tensed, his face freezing in a telling grimace. Gay screamed in celebration over the final three strides, winning a gold medal in 9.85 seconds into a slight headwind. Powell conceded and was passed for second by Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas.

"I just tightened up and panicked," said Powell after the race. "I ran well to about 70 meters, then started tying up and Tyson ran past me. I wasn't sure he was going to go by. That's normally where I start to run, towards the end of the race. I just stay relaxed and pull away from the pack, but I didn't."

Gay did. He started better than in any of the previous three rounds, after moving his starting blocks slightly, the result of a talk with former Olympian Jon Drummond, who works with Gay on his start. Running with the skin on his face flapping loosely in a sure sign of calm, Gay opened daylight 10 meters from the line, winning easily. "Seventy meters, that's when I really tried to start relaxing," said Gay. "And keep my arms pumping."

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