MONACO (AFP) - Jamaican sprint star Asafa Powell stamped his mark as the dominant athlete in the 100 metres when he won his 10th event of the season at the IAAF Grand Prix finals.
The 21-year-old ran an impressive 9.98 seconds to make it all the more bemusing his below-par fifth place at the Olympics.
His performance was one of the few impressive ones as the visibly tired athletes took their feet off the pedal apart from America's Olympic pole vault champion Timothy Mack, who joined the elite group to have gone over 6 metres.
The 32-year-old vaulted 6.01m to still lie some way off the world record of Sergei Bubka of 6.14m outdoors and 6.15m indoors, though he did try 6.06m which if successful would have placed him second on the all-time list.
"I felt on Friday that I could do something special," said Mack.
"They were perfect conditions and after I had failed at 6.06m the other vaulters said I should go for the world record," he added.
Powell powered out of his blocks in the fifth lane and left his rivals fighting for the minor honours as Olympic silver medallist Francis Obikwelu filled second place and Ghanaian Aziz Zakari, who failed to finish the Olympic final, third.
For Powell it was a case of showing once again what a talent he was was and in his eyes the best in the world save the blip in Athens where Justin Gatlin was crowned king of the 100m.
"I really wanted this victory," he said.
"This success and my consistency all season shows that I am the best this year and I should have been Olympic champion.
"I was one of the favourites in Athens but because of my bad start I couldn't get into the race."
Christian Olsson did succeed where Powell failed in winning Olympic gold, in the triple jump, but the all-conquering Swede who also won 500,000 dollars for winning all the Golden League events admitted he might seek another challenge to spice up his life a bit more.
"Maybe I am going to resume high jumping, because I need another challenge," said the 24-year-old, who is the only athlete in history to hold the world indoors and outdoors, European outdoor and indoor and Olympic titles.
Several of the women gold medallists were in action with Kelly Holmes getting back on the winners trail after defeat in Berlin last week as she won a slowly run 800m.
Russia's high jump champion Yelena Slesarenko won her event and then also tried for the world record with three attempts at 2.10m but failed with all of them.
There was no joy though for Greece's surprise gold medallist in the women's 400m hurdles Fani Halkia as she trailed in in fourth behind Sandra Glover nearly three seconds off her Greek and Olympic record she set in Athens.