Bolt vs. Powell Tops Stellar List of Electrifying Face-Offs in Paris - Preview - Samsung Diamond League

Courtesy of IAAF
Paris, France – There’ll be no shortage of tantalising head-to-heads when the Samsung Diamond League lands in the French capital on Friday for the Meeting Areva, but the one most likely to invoke images of last night’s spectacular Bastille Day fireworks will come in the 100m where Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell square off for the first time this season.

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Bolt’s biggest test of the season

On the comeback from an Achilles injury, the world’s fastest man arrives in Paris on the heels of a notable 9.82 victory in Lausanne where he equaled Powell’s 2010 world lead. It was Bolt’s first race in six weeks and his first 100m outing in nearly two months. All things considered, a solid rust-buster for the man who has redefined the limits of human speed. [Click here for more with Bolt]

Conversely, Powell will start after suffering his first defeat of the season after his narrow 9.94 to 9.96 loss to Tyson Gay in Gateshead last Saturday. Powell is the last man to have beaten Bolt, but that was just shy of two years ago and nobody has come particularly close since. Bolt says he’s not at 100 percent, while Powell, excluding his runner-up finish last weekend, has been by far the world’s preeminent 100m force thus far this season.

>>Read the full preview on the Samsung Diamond League Website<<