Asafa Powell

About Asafa Powell

Asafa Powell (born 23 November 1982) is a Jamaican sprinter. He held the world record in the 100 m between 2005 June and 2008 May, with times of 9.77 and later 9.74 seconds.

Asafa Powell planned to be a mechanic before he took up running whilst studying in Kingston, Jamaica. His elder brother Donovan was a 100 m semi-finalist in the 1999 World Championships.

Powell first came to the attention of the athletics world at the 2003 World Championships when he suffered the ignominy of being 'the other athlete' disqualified for a false start in the quarter-final where Jon Drummond memorably refused to leave the track having suffered the same fate (both athletes moving less than 0.1 seconds after gun firing).