Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell and American 400m runners Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards blitzed their rivals Sunday to share the Golden League jackpot for a perfect six wins in the six-meet series.
The trio will each take home a cool 250,000 dollars, but will have to compete in the IAAF world athletics finals in Stuttgart on September 9-10 to be eligible for the prize.
Powell, joint world record holder with drug-tainted American Justin Gatlin, clocked up his record 11th sub-10sec race this year, romping home in a meeting record of 9.86sec, 0.1sec ahead of American Tyson Gay.
There was no repeat of the awful start Powell suffered in Brussels last week, and once he hit his elegant long stride there was no stopping the 23-year-old as he powered away from the field.
"I am sorry for the Berlin audience that I did not run faster," Powell said, putting his success on the track down to "training a lot and staying healthy".
"I will invest my money as I normally do. But of course I will also share some of it with my family. I am a preacher's son," Powell said.
"Everywhere I go people expect me to run sub 9.77-sec races. But I can only go as fast as my legs allow. I executed as well as I wanted to today so I'm very happy."
Wariner duly wrapped up his perfect six from six in the men's 400m, producing a strong final bend to outrun pacesetter Lashawn Merrit, who himself was caught by Gary Kikaya of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 22-year-old, the only athlete to have won two gold medals in both the 2004 Olympics and last year's world championships, fell short of his target of another sub-44sec run, timing 44.26sec.
"It was a tough one but I was able to focus on my race and stay consistent, as I have done the whole season," said Wariner. "Merritt went fast on the first 200m but I continued to run my own race."
Richards hit the 300m mark a full 10 metres up on the field and won comfortably in 49.81sec ahead of compatriot Dee Dee Trotter (50.87sec).
In the hunt for a share of a second pot of 500,000 dollars for athletes having won five out of six events, there was good news for Kenenisa Bekele and Irving Saladino, who won their 5000m and long jump events (8.35m) respectively.
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