ESPN Olympic Sports

LONDON -- Maurice Greene no longer looks like the clear-cut favorite for the 100-meter gold medal in Athens. Asafa Powell, a 21-year-old Jamaican, has joined him as the men to beat.

Powell, undefeated this season, clocked 9.91 seconds -- the fastest time ever on British soil -- to win the 100 at Friday night's London Grand Prix meet.

Greene, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist, three-time world champion and former world record-holder, finished second in 9.97. Another American, Leonard Scott, was third in 10.04.

Also Friday, Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva broke the pole vault world record for the third time in five weeks, clearing 16 feet, } inch at Crystal Palace.

It was the third defeat of the season for Greene and second in two races. Last week, he lost to little-known Francis Obikwelu of Portugal in Paris.

"It doesn't matter what happened here," Greene said. "Everything matters what happens at the games. I'll be ready."

He'll have to find a way to beat Powell.

"I'm very confident right now about the Olympics because Maurice Greene won the U.S. trials a couple of weeks ago," Powell said. "They [the Americans] were the guys to beat, and I beat them. So, I'm very confident for Athens."

The favorite?

"You can say that, yeah," Powell said.

Asked whether Powell was now the top sprinter, Greene laughed and said, "No, I think I'm going to win." But he added: "He's very good, you can't overlook him. We're going to have a lot of good races together."

Another potential Olympic contender, world champion Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis, finished fifth in 10.14. Justin Gatlin, who qualified for the U.S. Olympic team, was sixth in 10.20 and fellow American Darvis Patton was seventh in 10.23.

It was a bad night for U.S. athletes -- not one American won any of the 14 events.

Powell ran with smooth, controlled power, while Greene got off to a slow start and couldn't make up ground on the Jamaican.

"I'm not surprised he won tonight," Greene said. "But I know why I lost -- my start. I was all over the track, going side to side, and he was just going straight ahead. But I'll fix that. I'll get it together for Athens. When I do -- woooo!"

Powell said he stumbled out of the blocks and could have run a much faster time, possibly 9.86, with a better start. His 9.91 equaled his own Jamaican record, set in his national championships in June.

It was Powell's third sub-10-second clocking of the season. He also ran 9.99 in Jamaica on June 12.

This is Powell's second full season on the circuit. At last year's world championships in Paris, he was disqualified in a quarterfinal heat of the 100 for a false start along with U.S. sprinter Jon Drummond, who threw a tantrum and lay on the track in protest.

Greene and Powell said they will both run in next week's Golden League meet in Zurich, Switzerland. It will likely be their last individual 100 races before Athens.

Greene won his semifinal heat in 9.98. The two races marked the 47th and 48th times in his career that he's run under 10 seconds in legal wind conditions.

Jamaica's Veronica Campbell won the women's 100 in 11.12, followed by teammate Aleen Bailey in 11.15 and Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas in 11.19.

Triple Olympic champion Marion Jones had been scheduled to compete in the 100 and long jump, but pulled out earlier this week. Jones is under investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, but has not been charged with any offense and denies ever using banned drugs. She may compete next week in Linz, Austria, or Zurich, Switzerland.

Isinbayeva bettered the mark of 16-{ set five days ago in Birmingham, England. The 22-year-old earned $50,000 for the new record. Olympic champion Stacy Dragila missed three tries at 15-5 and finished fourth.

Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie, running his final race before going for his third Olympic gold in the 10,000, won the 5,000 in 12:55.51. Other winners included Hestrie Cloete of South Africa in the women's high jump (6-8); Kenya's Paul Korir in the mile (3:49.84); and Mozambique's Maria Mutola in the 800 (1:59.17).

Alan Webb, 21, clocked 3:50.73 in the mile, beating his previous best of 3:50.85, but that was only good enough for fourth in the 52nd running of the Emsley Carr mile. The last American to win the event was Jim Ryun in 1967.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press