Asafa Powell Will Run in Athlone IT Athletics Grand Prix

Published by The Irish Times on December 8, 2014

Irish athletics fans will get to see former 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell compete in the flesh next February after the Athlone Institute of Technology announced that he will headline their second annual grand prix in the new year.

The 32-year-old will be joined by Mutaz Essa Barshim, the Qatari world indoor high jump champion, for the AIT hosted event on February 18th 2015.

Powell returned to the track last summer, having been banned for testing positive for the drug oxilofrine in 2013, after his 18-month suspension was lifted on July 14th 2014.

Since then Powell has ran three sub-ten second times, running the summer’s third fastest 100m sprint, only slightly behind the United States’ Justin Gatlin and Trinidad and Tobago’s Richard Thompson’s times.