Asafa says no 'clash' with Bolt »

Asafa says no 'clash' with Bolt

ASAFA POWELL, the former world 100-metre record holder, warned there would be no clash with Usain Bolt at this weekend's National Championships to be held at the National Stadium.

The men's 100m is scheduled to run off tomorrow but Powell and Bolt, the new record holder, are not likely to meet before Saturday night's final, which is expected to draw a large crowd.

However, Powell made it clear that qualifying for the Olympic Games in Beijing will be the aim, not beating Bolt.

Making the team

"I am not going there to put on any show because you have Bolt who is running 9.7, and other guys running (well)," Powell said shortly after his race in Trinidad & Tobago on Saturday.

"I just want to make the team. That's all I want to do ... that's all I am going there to do, make the team," he repeated after running 9.96 to win semi-final one of the men's 100m at the Trinidad & Tobago trials.

Powell backed up comments made earlier by his coach Stephen Francis who said a clash would only be on if Jamaica had more than two persons running in the region of 9.7.

Sizzling showdown

The world awaits a sizzling showdown between Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man at 9.72, and Powell, who held the previous world record of 9.74, but both sprinters are avoiding a showdown.

Bolt also distanced himself from the pending clash, saying: "I don't think it will be a showdown. "I just think Asafa and I will just be going out there to make the team to Beijing. I don't think we are going out there to prove anything. That's how I will be looking at it, I don't know how Asafa will be looking at it," Bolt said a day after his 9.72 world-record run in New York on May 30.

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