Olympic triple gold medallist, Usain Bolt, won the highly antcipated 100m race at the Belgacom Memorial Van Damme meeting in Brussels, Belgium on Friday.  In the process, he broke Asafa Powell's meet record of 9.84 by registering a stupendous 9.77 seconds into a headwind. 

The former world record holder, Powell, finshed second in 9.83 seconds while fellow Jamaicans Nesta Carter and Michael Frater finished third and fourth respectively.

Powell, as expected had the much faster start and led the race up until the final 10 metres where Bolt over took him.  

Bolt admitted he had a poor start. "I was sleeping," he said. "Asafa caught me off guard."

"Asafa is a really fast guy," Bolt added. "I'm getting used to chasing him."

Powell countered: "With legs like his, he doesn't need a good reaction time.  I had an excellent start, but Usain gives up nothing."

We could have broken the world record tonight in better weather but this showed again that Jamaica is the sprint capital of the world."   

Bolt's races of late have been more of an exhibition of sprinting with his rivals fighting for second place while he coasts to victory.  But Friday's race was what fans wanted to see - Bolt running to the line.

"It's great to finish the season with a victory. I have to be satisfied with 9.77 especially in these wet conditions."

"Without doubt, I would have had the legs to have run faster had the conditions been better."

"Now I will go back to Jamaica. I'll rest and think about next season. I'm going to keep working harder and harder and improve my start, that's the most important thing."

Powell also seemed satisfied with his race but admitted that he will have to work harder if he is to catch his friend Bolt.

"I was close to Usain but he beat me. I'm not that far off but now I will have to work hard," said Powell.

"Since I've been running, this has been the most exciting race I've ever been in," added Powell whose time in Lausanne 72 hours earlier has only been bettered by Bolt.

Though losing to Bolt, the Commonwealth champion is anticipating ending the season once again as the world record holder.  Following his disappointment at last year's World Championships where he got the bronze medal, Powell ran in Rieti a few weeks later and broke the world record.

Rieit (Sept.7) is again on Powell's itinerary and he has stated that Bolt will be in for some bad news when he lands in Jamaica.

"He [Bolt] will be travelling home and I've told him to expect some bad news when he gets there," Powell said.  But he also said that "reclaiming the world record would be great but once you have a medal you can't lose it."

Powell's main objective is to take gold next year at the Berlin World Championships.

"It'll be important not to get injured over the winter and to start 2009 in the best condition. Next year, the objective will be to take gold in Berlin."