Faster than Usain Bolt? Asafa Powell's outrageous 4x100m relay leg at 2008 Olympics

Asafa Powell must have felt as though he lived in Usain Bolt’s shadow near the back end of his career.

It’s easy to forget that it was Powell who became the first Jamaican in the 21st century to break the men’s 100-metre world record, only for Bolt to come along and blow his markers out of the water.

Powell had crowned himself the fastest human being on record no less four times between 2005 and 2007, first breaking the record in 9.77 seconds before eventually lowering the historic clocking down to 9.74.

As such, Powell is always assured of a place in the athletics history books, but he won’t feature as prominently as he might have done had not Bolt come along and nabbed the record in 2008.

The Olympic legend first outdid his compatriot with a time of 9.72 seconds in New York, before setting the world record of 9.58 that we know and admire today at the 2009 World Athletics Championships.

However, in between those historic runs, Bolt also posted his second 100m record to the tune of 9.69 seconds during the 2008 Olympic final at Beijing where Powell disappointed down in fifth place.

What endures as a crowning achievement for Bolt where he basically jogged across the line by celebrating with 20 metres to spare therefore proved to be a crushing moment for Powell, underlining his disappointing performances in the biggest races of all.

Well, at least in individual events, that is, because Powell still had time for one last flourish in the Beijing limelight at a competition which truly signalled Bolt inheriting his ‘world’s fastest man’ mantle.

And that came during the 4×100-metre relay final at the Olympics where Jamaica initially won the gold medal in a world record time of 37.10 seconds which was later invalidated due to