Jamaica's Asafa Powell cruised to victory in the 100m at the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace to complete his preparations for the Beijing Olympics.

The former world record holder won in 9.94 seconds ahead of Trinidad's Marc Burns, with Craig Pickering eighth.

On the British front, Phillips Idowu won the triple jump with a 17.42m leap.

Elsewhere, Christine Ohurugo saw home a British 1-2-3 in the 400m, while Kelly Sotherton recorded a lifetime best long jump in the four-event US to attend meeting in Geneva over Iran's nuclear program ...
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Her leap of 6.79m was the perfect start to the weekend, but the shine was taken off her evening as she struggled in the 100m hurdles - coming home fourth in a race that had to be re-run after the hurdles were set out in the wrong position in the original race.

However, she still holds a 69-point lead going into Saturday's two events.

Most eyes at Crystal Palace were on the men's 100m race, though, despite the absence of world record holder Tyson Gay, who had to withdraw because of injury.

Powell blew away the opposition anyway, though a headwind meant his time was some way off the 9.74 seconds he recorded at the Rieti, Italy meeting in 2007.

Briton Pickering, meanwhile, made it into the final as one of the fastest losers from the heats in a time of 10.25secs, but even though he improved on that with a run of 10.21, it was only good enough to see him finish eighth in the showpiece.

The news was better for Idowu, even though it took the triple jumper until his fourth effort to show something like his best form with a leap of 17.41m - an effort that he beat by a centimetre in the next jump.

Fellow Britons Nathan Douglas and Larry Achike finished second and third with leaps of 17.14m and 17.09m respectively.

Similarly, the women's 400m saw a British 1-2-3, Ohurugu finishing in 50.80secs ahead of Nicola Sanders (51.27secs) and Lee McConnell (51.53secs).

In the Emsley Carr Mile, Britain's Andrew Baddeley impressed in finishing second behind Kenyan Shedrack Korir in a time of 3:54.76.

(BBC)

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