Powell wins 100 metres, Bekele beaten over 5,000

OSLO, June 2 (Reuters) Co-world record holder Asafa Powell raced to victory in 9.98 seconds over 100 metres at the Bislett Games Golden League meeting today.

However, Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele's hopes of a Golden League clean sweep in the distance events were ended when the world record holder was beaten by Kenyan Isaac Songok.

Songok, who was 10th at the world championships last year, took command of the race with 200 metres to go, winning in 12 minutes 55.79 seconds, a world-leading performance.

Bekele failed to muster his devastating kick and was a distant second in 12:58.22 seconds.

Powell's victory was as overwhelming as the Jamaican sprinter and others had expected.

''It wasn't too spectacular,'' he said, after edging American Shawn Crawford in 10.02 seconds.

''I made some mistakes in the second half of the race,'' added the 23-year-old, who won his qualifying race in 9.96 seconds.

American Justin Gatlin, who equalled Powell's world mark of 9.77 last month, was not competing in Oslo. The two are not scheduled to meet on the track until July.

Five other world-leading performances were set in the first leg of the six-meeting IAAF Golden League Series.

World champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia won the women's 5,000 metres in 14:30.40 seconds, the ninth fastest performance of all time.

Alex Kipchirchir of Kenya won the mile in 3:50.32 seconds.

American Sanya Richards took the 400 metres in 49.82 more than a second ahead of runner-up Shericka Williams of Jamaica. In the men's 800 metres Mohammed Al Azzimi of Kuwait maintained his world lead with a dramatic 1:44.59 victory.

In the men's javelin throw, Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway won the event throw of 91.59m, a national record.

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