Roared on by a sell-out King Boudewijn Stadium crowd at the final Golden League event of the season and unperturbed by chilly temperatures that had the other athletes rubbing their hands to keep warm, the 23-yearold Jamaican triumphed in the fastest time run outside a major championship.

In the 100m, Jamaica’s Asafa Powell stormed to victory over American Tyson Gay. Powell, the 2004 Olympic champion, clocked 9.90 seconds, with Gay, the world 100m silver medallist, 0.10 seconds behind.

A Kenyan quartet beat the oldest world record in athletics, eclipsing the 32-year-old 4x1500m mark of West Germany in an event that is not run at major championships and seldom at big meets like the Golden League.