Asafa Powell makes winning return

World record holder Asafa Powell made an impressive comeback from injury by winning the 100 metres in 9.90 seconds at a Golden League meeting on Friday.

Powell, who had not raced an individual 100 since suffering a groin injury at the Jamaican national championships on June 23, streaked away from the field in Rome to finish 0.12 seconds ahead of runner-up Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas.

Powell's time was his best of the season and the second quickest performance of 2007 behind the 9.84 mark set by Tyson Gay at last month's U.S. trials.

Afterwards Powell told journalists he could have gone even faster.

"I eased up at the finish. I didn't want to put pressure after the injury," he said trackside.

"It was frustrating to get the injury when I did -- at the start of the Golden League, but I'm happy with the way I raced here.

"The clash between me and Tyson Gay in Osaka (at the world championships) will be one of the showdowns of the year."

Powell's victory was one of a number of impressive track performances on a warm, still night inside the Olympic Stadium.

The men's 5,000 metres produced the best performance of 2007, with Sileshi Sihine of Ethiopia outsprinting Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge to win in 13 minutes 1.46 seconds.

FASTEST TIME

World 100 hurdles champion Michelle Perry also set the fastest time of the year in her event by winning in 12.44

The American, who also won in Oslo and Paris, remains in the running for a share of the $1 million jackpot available to athletes who win their event at all six Golden League meetings.

"The Golden League hunt is still on," Perry said.

"I'm really excited. I started well, I executed it well in the middle and I finished strongly."

Another American, Sanya Richards, remained in contention for the jackpot by winning the 400 in 49.77 seconds.

There was disappointment, however, in the women's pole vault, where the eagerly awaited duel between Russia's world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva and the improving Jennifer Stuczynski failed to materialise after the American pulled out with a back injury.

Isinbayeva underlined her supremacy in the event by clearing 4.90 metres at her first attempt -- 25 centimetres higher than second-placed Katerina Badurova -- before failing three times at a world record height of 5.02.

The meeting in the Italian capital also contained a moment of unwelcome drama when French long jumper Salim Sdiri was taken to hospital after being hit by a javelin.

Sdiri was crouching in the warm-up area to the left of the landing area when the wayward javelin, thrown by Finland's Tero Pitkamaki, hit him in the side.

An ambulance and a medical crew were quickly at the scene. Meeting organisers later said Sdiri's condition as not serious.