MELBOURNE, March 20: Asafa Powell and Sheri-Ann Brooks scored a golden 100 metres double for Jamaica at the Commonwealth Games on Monday after the world’s fastest man flirted with disaster in a bizarre semifinal.

World record holder Powell burst clear early in the men’s final and eased down over the last few strides to win his first major medal in a relatively conservative time of 10.03 seconds.

“This is my first major championship and it says to the world that I can do it,” Powell told reporters.

The run dispelled any doubts about the groin injury that had kept him off the track since last July, a month after he set his world mark of 9.77 seconds.

“I can run sub-10 any time but I’m just not ready,” Powell said. I didn’t want to push too hard because I’m just coming off an injury.”

Nigerian Soji Fasuba took the silver in 10.11 and Trinidadian Marc Burns got the bronze in 10.17.

Powell survived a drama-packed semifinal when he crossed into Canadian Anson Henry’s lane, risking disqualification, before reaching the finish line.

Event officials said action could only be taken if another runner complained. They said no one had lodged a complaint and that Powell had not impeded Henry.

Powell’s team mate Michael Frater and England’s Mark Lewis-Francis were not so lucky, with both men being disqualified.

Frater, second in last year’s world championships, was eliminated for jumping the gun after the field had been put under warning following Australian Patrick Johnson’s false start.

Lewis-Francis, a relay gold medallist at the Athens Olympics, was disqualified for the same offence, before the race finally got underway at the fourth attempt.

Powell’s compatriot Sheri-Ann Brooks won her first major title when she surged clear from the halfway mark to win the women’s 100 in 11.19 seconds.

“I could see out of the corner of my eye that I was going to win. I ran a strong race,” the former U.S Collegiate 200 metres champion said.

Brooks, 23, has been in sparkling form in Melbourne over the past two weeks, winning the final in a style that earned comparisons to her idol, former Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey, who now competes for Slovenia.

Teenager Augustine Choge, the son of Kenyan farmers, made light of a challenge by Australian hope Craig Mottram as he raced away to win the 5,000 metres final.

Choge, 19, stayed on Mottram’s shoulder until bursting clear on the final lap to claim his first major senior title in a Commonwealth Games record of 12 minutes, 56.41 seconds.

Mottram took the silver medal in 12:58.19 and Kenyan world champion Benjamin Limo the bronze.

“I don’t know how to describe myself, I’m so happy,” Choge said.

Australia took all six medals in the men’s and women’s 20-km walks. Jane Saville and Nathan Deakes both smashed their own Commonwealth Games records from four years ago as they defended their titles.

In a golden day for the hosts, Australian Brooke Krueger made her major competition breakthrough by winning the hammer throw with a fourth round effort of 67.90 metres.

South African farmer Janus Robberts also lifted his first major title when he headed a modest field to win the men’s shot putt with a best of 19.76.—Reuters

Medals table