I'll go even faster, vows hot Asafa Powell

Asafa Powell won his third consecutive 100 metres race last night in his last major meeting before the Olympics.

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

Neither Bolt or Gay were in last night's race where American Darvis Patton finished second in 9.98sec while Powell's training partner Nesta Carter took third in 10.02sec.

Powell said: "I still have work to do on my finish and I can do better than that. 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."

Russian Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own women's world pole vault record when she cleared 5.04 metres at her third attempt. Isinbayeva bettered her previous mark by a centimetre, set at the Rome Golden League meeting just 18 days ago.