Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer

Powell

TENDONITIS OF the knee has forced Jamaica's world 100-metre record holder Asafa Powell to pull out of upcoming meets.

Powell, who dominated the event last season with 12 sub-10 second times, has pulled out of this week's Penn Relays and possibly the Jamaica International Invitational meet set for May 5.

Paul Doyle, Powell's agent, said the athlete was still suffering from a "tender knee".

"It's not too serious, but we don't want him to run at full speed yet," Doyle said. "We don't want to run him if he is not 100 per cent ... we just want to play it safe."

According to Doyle, Powell "is still training, so we are just going to play it day-by-day".

Powell was quoted at the recent Mt. Sac Relays saying: "I'm really not going to run that much this year before the World Championships. But I'm going to Osaka (Japan) to win gold."