WDL Classics Oslo 2010: Powell power

Live from the archive every single Sunday on the Wanda Diamond League YouTube channel, the WDL Classics series revisits historical Diamond League meetings with a re-live stream of the full two-hour TV broadcast. This week: the first Diamond League meeting on European soil in Oslo in 2010. 

When the Diamond League touched down in Europe for the very first time on June 4, 2010, it was Jamaica’s Asafa Powell who stole the headlines. 

Powell had already impressed on his Diamond League debut at the season opener in Doha the previous month, clocking an impressive 9.75 in his heat before beating compatriot Nesta Carter in the race proper.

At the Bislett Games in Oslo, he went one better, with a breathtaking 9.72w to make it a maximum of 16 points from his first two Diamond League appearances.

Had it not been for the wind reading – which was just over the legal limit at +2.1 – the Jamaican would have set a new world lead and equalled his own PB, which still today puts him among the five fastest men in history. 

“The wind’s not that much over, so I’m pretty sure that, if it was 2m/s flat, it would have been the same time. I’m still happy with it,” he said in Oslo. 

Beyond Powell’s powerful win in the 100m, there were a handful of world leads in the distance events at Bislett in 2010, including a sharp 1:42.04 from David Rudisha in the men’s 800m. 

There were also winning performances from Carmelita Jeter and Lolo Jones, while Renaud Lavillenie picked up his first ever Diamond League win in the men’s pole vault.

It was the start of an unrivalled era of dominance for the Frenchman, who would go on to win a total of seven Diamond League titles between 2010 and 2016, a record which still stands today. 

Watch WDL Classics: Oslo 2010