Andre Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Former 100m word record holder Asafa Powell, as usual got off to a nifty start in his 100m season opener at the Doha Diamond League yesterday, but as is becoming the norm, he was pipped at the line after losing his form under pressure, this time to disgraced American Justin Gatlin.

Powell blamed fatigue and jet lag for his mid-race collapse but saw enough in his 9.88 second-place effort to leave the Middle East country in good spirits.

"I cannot complain about my time - 9.88 is a good time,'' said Powell. ''I am still feeling the jet lag, so I cannot say I was 100 per cent ready. I will surely go for gold at the Olympics.''

Powell also used popular social media platform twitter to share his views adding, "Just flew in from Jamaica and do 9.88 with jet lag I'm happy... Next weekend its a different ball game."

Powell is scheduled to run at the Shanghai Diamond League meet next Saturday.

Gatlin, still fresh from a four-year drug ban for performance enhancement substances, powered his way to a 9.87 clocking - the third fastest time so far this year in a week that saw triple Olympic champion and world record holder Usain Bolt post 9.82 and his fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake - the world champion, register a 9.84 response of his own.

Seventh win

It was Gatlin's seventh win over Powell in their 10 meetings and throws him in the discussion for this summer's Olympic Games.

"'This is fastest I ever opened up my career,'' said Gatlin, who dedicated the win to son Jace on his second birthday.

''I just showed I have a lot of grit and a lot of competition in these old legs,'' Gatlin added. ''I want to come back and show the world I can run to the line with the best of them.''

Commonwealth champion Lerone Clarke was third in his personal best matching 9.99, while fellow Jamaicans Nesta Carter, 10.05, and Jacques Harvey, 10.14, were fifth and seventh, respectively.

Olympic 400m hurdler Melaine Walker was the most impressive Jamaican in action, setting a world leading time, 54.62 to win ahead of her training partner and defending Diamond League champion Kaliese Spencer, who also posted an impressive early season, 54.99.

Former world champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton confirmed that she is back and gunning for London with her second fast finish in as many weeks, with a 12.60 win following up on her 12.51 run at the JN Jamaica Invitational last week.

In the women's 100m, Allyson Felix, 10.92, surprised pre-meet favourite Veronica Campbell-Brown, 10.94, who was running her first 100m of the season with Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce running third in 11.00. Kerron Stewart, 11.16, and Sherone Simpson, 11.22, finished down the track.

"First one out the way, thank God for health. The work continues. Congrats to Allyson and the other ladies, that was a good race," Campbell-Brown tweeted after the race.

The men's 200m had little success for the Jamaican trio in action as Marvin Anderson could only manage third place in 20.42 with Mario Forsythe, 20.53 and Rasheed Dwyer, 20.60, taking the next two positions.