6月14日，在希腊雅典举行的国际田联超级大奖赛男子百米决赛中，22岁的牙买加小将阿萨法鲍威尔表现出色，以9秒77打破了男子100米短跑的世界纪录。外电报道如下：Asafa Powell set a world record in the men's 100 metres Tuesday, registering1 9.77 seconds at the Tsiklitiria Super Grand Prix meeting.
The Jamaican, who finished fifth in 9.94 at the 2004 Athens Games on the same track, shaved one hundredth of a second off Tim Montgomery's record of 9.78 set in Paris in 2002. Montgomery's record already was at risk because he faces doping charges. The previous record was 9.79 set by Maurice Greene on the Athens track in 1999.
Powell, 22, already had the world's fastest time this year, a run of 9.84 seconds at the Jamaica International Invitational on May 8. He also ran a 9.85 on June 9 in the Czech Republic. His run Tuesday came with a tailwind of 1.6 metres per second, well below the legal limit of 2.0.
Tailwind表示（从后面吹来的）顺风，多指飞机、船只等运载工具向与风吹一致的方向行驶。
鲍威尔的成绩打破了此前由美国选手蒙哥马利维持的9秒78的原男子百米世界记录。原记录是蒙哥马利2002年在法国巴黎进行的田径大奖赛中创造的。鲍威尔的新记录得到了国际田联的官方认同，是在风速为每秒1.6m的条件下创造，他在枪响瞬间的反映速度是0.150秒。
