Former 100 meters world record holder Asafa Powell withdrew from this week's London Diamond League meeting Thursday with a back and hamstring strain. The Jamaican, whose 100m duel with Tyson Gay was to be one of the highlights of the Crystal Palace event, is suffering with the same injury that forced him out of the Stockholm meeting last week. “I am disappointed that I will not be able to run at the London Grand Prix as I love running in front of the Jamaican fans here,” Powell said in a statement. “I visited the doctor yesterday and he has advised me not to run in order to help the recovery of my injury. I had hoped it would be better but unfortunately this is not so.” The withdrawal of Powell, who held the 100 meters world record for three years until it was lowered by Usain Bolt in 2008, is a blow to organizers who had hoped to stage a showdown between Powell, Gay and Olympic and world champion Bolt. Bolt declined to enter because of tax reasons and has since been ruled out for the season with injury. Gay's main rival in London will now be fellow American Walter Dix, the Olympic bronze medallist. The London Diamond League meeting is Friday and Saturday. There will be many other intriguing battles in the two-day meet, where the crowd will welcome back a host of athletes who helped Britain return a record 19-medal haul at the European Championships in Barcelona. Home favorite Mo Farah, the new European 5,000m and 10,000m champion, will take on Kenyan-born American Bernard Lagat over 3,000m. Lagat won world indoor gold at that distance earlier this year. Also Friday, three-time world champion Allyson Felix of the United States competes in the 200m and former world champions Bershawn Jackson and Felix Sanchez go up against David Greene and Rhys Williams, who grabbed a British 1-2 at the European Championships, in the 400m. American 100m hurdler David Oliver has been in form this season, clocking a personal best of 12.89 secs – just 0.02 secs off Dayron Robles's world record – in Paris, and has another chance in London to surpass the Cuban's best time. Britain's new European champion Andy Turner will also be present Saturday. American Jeremy Wariner, the Diamond Race leader in the 400m thanks to four victories in the series this season, will go head to head with closest rival Jermaine Gonzales of Jamaica. And in the field events, there should be a three-way fight for victory in the men's triple jump when Britain's world and newly crowned European champion Phillips Idowu, Sweden's Christian Olsson and France's Teddy Tamgho face off. There are two more Diamond League events this season – in Zurich on August 19 and in Brussels eight days later.
