Another day, another record

The Olympic and world champion had come close to vaulting 5.04 metres last Friday in London, where she cleared the bar with her third attempt but brought it down during her descent.

“The record just happened,” the 26-year-old Monaco resident told reporters. “Monaco is my home town and it’s my first competition (in Monaco) since I’ve been living here. That motivated me.

“I’m in a good shape, I just need to keep my condition that way until the Olympics. I wanted to improve my personal best and that’s what I did. I see this world record first of all as a personal best.”

Former world record holder Asafa Powell won his third consecutive 100 metres race of the season in his last major meeting before the Beijing Olympics starting next week.

The Jamaican Commonwealth champion clocked 9.82 seconds, his best time this year. Only compatriot Usain Bolt, who took the world record from Powell on May 31, and American world champion Tyson Gay have run faster in 2008.

Neither Powell nor Gay were in Tuesday’s race where American Darvis Patton finished second in 9.98 while Powell’s compatriot and training partner Nesta Carter took third place in 10.02.

“I still have work to do on my finish and I can do better than that,” Powell told reporters. “I’m not really surprised by my time. There was no wind at all and with a slight headwind, it might have been faster. I’m feeling well, fresh.”

“I believe I can,” Powell added when asked whether he thought he could recapture the world record of 9.72 seconds set by Bolt in New York on May 31 this year.

The women’s 100 metres was also won by a Jamaican runner, Kerron Stewart, in 10.94. She narrowly outsprinted compatriot Sherone Simpson, who came second in 10.95. American Torri Edwards, the leading 2008 performer with 10.78, was third in 11.02.

FIFA orders release

World soccer’s governing body FIFA has told clubs they must release any players aged under 23 selected for next month’s Beijing Olympics after rejecting a protest by three European teams.

In a statement issued to the clubs and the media on Wednesday, FIFA said Players’ Status Committee member Slim Aloulou had ruled as a single judge that the release of players was mandatory.

German Bundesliga sides Werder Bremen and Schalke, and Spain’s Barcelona had argued against the need to release players because the Olympics were not included on FIFA’s international match calendar.