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Billed as “the rocket race” for which everyone in this stadium rose to their feet, it was Powell who was first out of the blocks but if anyone if capable of chasing down the former world record holder, it is Bolt.

Blowing hot and cold: Usain Bolt came from behind to defeat Asafa Powel

The Olympic champion and world record holder, who generates more excitement than any athlete in living memory, caught Powell with less than 20 metres to go, to cross the line in 9.77sec. It was a meeting record and yet, set against the astonishing mark of 9.69 Bolt set in the Olympic final, the time did not appear that quick. Take into account the headwind of 1.3m/sec, however, and what the 47,000 crowd saw here was a performance every bit as good.

It made a mockery of the conditions, which were cool and damp for this end-of-season Ivo Van Damme Memorial meeting, the last and the best of the summer’s Golden League events.

It also fuelled speculation that with another winter’s training behind him, Bolt could yet fulfil his coach Glen Mills’ prediction that 9.52 is possible next year.

In the absence of the world champion, Tyson Gay, who withdrew the night before because of his fragile state of fitness, Nesta Carter was third, ahead of Michael Frater, as Jamaica’s gold medal-winning and world record-breaking 4×100m team filled the first four places.

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

Powell countered: “With legs like his, he doesn’t need a good reaction time. We could have broken the world record tonight in better weather but this showed again that Jamaica is the sprint capital of the world.”

This was Bolt’s last race in Europe before his triumphant return to Jamaica, where the party celebrating the country’s six gold medals in the Bird’s Nest Stadium is set to last for weeks and at least until Powell makes it home after races in Rieti tomorrow and Stuttgart next weekend.

Such is Powell’s good form going into the Italian meeting where he set the world record at 9.74 last year, he warned his compatriot against complacency.Powell said: “Usain will be on his way home and I’ve told him to be prepared for bad news.”

The happiest winner by far last night was Pamela Jelimo, the Olympic 800m champion from Kenya.

The 18-year-old, in her first season on the circuit, produced another brilliant performance to clock a meeting record of 1min 55.16sec. With that, she became the outright winner of the Golden League’s $1 million jackpot when the only other contender, Blanka Vlasic, could finish only second in the high jump.

Apart from Martyn Rooney, who was an impressive second to Jeremy Wariner in the 400m, the British athletes had little more than supporting roles.

Meanwhile, the Court of Arbitration for Sport said yesterday that it would hear an appeal by the Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee against the disqualification of Churandy Martina, after he had finished second behind Bolt in the 200m in Beijing.

Martina was spotted by the US team to have run out of his lane, an offence the NAOC accept, but they have appealed on the grounds that the protest was filed after the 30-minute deadline set by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

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