Both Powell and Bolt are hopes of Jamaica in the coming Olympics. They are going to contest with American Tyson Gay, the world champion who ran a wind-aided time of 9.68 seconds lately, and the Athens Olympic silver medalist Francis Obikwelu of Portugal.

With the men's 100 meters world record in hand, Bolt, long trained in the 200 meters sprint, is an unquestioned favorite for the men's 200 meters at the Olympics. Her personal best in 19.67 seconds, also the season's best created earlier this month, was the closest, of all Beijing Olympians, to American Michael Johnson's stunning world record in 19.32 seconds set a dozen years ago in Barcelona, Spain.

The list of athletes who created the season's bests was still on. Portuguese world indoor champion Naide Gomes won over European champion Lyudmila Kolchanova in the Monaco contest with a Portuguese national record of 7.12 meters, which would secure at least a medal in the Olympic women's long jump.

Jamaica's Melaine Walker ran a season's lead of 53.48 seconds in the women's 400 meters hurdles, outperforming US runner Tiffany Ross-Williams, who finished in 53.54 seconds.

A season's best was also created by Kenyan Daniel Kipchirchir Komen in 3 minutes and 31.49 seconds in the men's 1500 meters race. His fellow Kenyan clocked the second best at 3 minutes and 31.94 seconds.

Many top athletes took the grand prix series in Europe as a final step for gearing up towards the Olympics, and some seemed in quite good form.

Russian jumping star Andrey Silnov, the European champion, leapt to a 2.38-meter world high jump season lead last Friday in the London Aviva Grand Prix.

The toughest contender to the defending Olympic gold medalist Liu Xiang in the men's 110 meters hurdles, Cuban sprint hurdler Dayron Robles clocked 12.88 and 12.91 seconds in the past two weeks in Paris, France, and Stockholm, Sweden, respectively.

After an early June brief show-up in Eugene, Oregon of the United States, which ended with a false-start disqualification, Liu shied away from the main spotlight and is now training somewhere in Beijing.

The 25-year-old Liu, whose world record in 12.88 seconds was taken over by Robles in June by one hundredth of a second, was believed to have great pressure on before playing the significant home game.

(Xinhua News Agency July 31, 2008)