A couple of things:
Powell also beat the old meet record of 9.88 set by Boldon in 2001, in which he required a +2.0 wind, in likely warmer weather. Were it not for Bolt, Powell would own every record in the book, excepting Gay's 9.69
Also, I'd like to see 10m splits from this race. From the youtube vid they looked pretty even until maybe 80m, with Powell a slight advantage on the start, and with a pretty equal drive and transition phases.
I used to think that Powell could cure his end-of-race funk by changing his form, moving from a complete sprinting-type pattern to more of a running-type pattern, like those with great top-end tend to do nowadays, like Bolt and Gay.
But remembering how well Powell has run the relay anchor makes me think that he is just burning up too much energy earlier on in the race, and is completely dead by 80m, and just relies on momentum to carry him to the finish. Having had the benefit of the rolling start, he held his form beautifully through the finish line, something that I haven't often seen him do in a 100.
He is very rarely down on anybody at the 50m mark, so he potentially has some ground to give in the beginning, so that he might save something for the last 20-25m. He maintains his acceleration phase for quite a long time, and it often appears, relative to other competitors, that he puts on a burst of speed between 40 and 55m.
What if he eased off in the first half, and was just even with others at that point? Could he beat them in the second half of the race?
One answer to this question was given at last year's nationals, was yes--he was only even with everybody else at the halfway point, and actually won the race with his speed endurance. In that particular race, he still seemed to put on that burst of late acceleration between 40 and 55m, which is what brought him even--but at the 25m mark, he was down by a meter!
And added to that, I think that he actually eased up at the end of the race because he knew that he had it won.
So in this race he was .06 down on Bolt at the finish--that's pretty damn close. While Bolt leaned, Powell did not, and there is .01 more, so he could have finished .05 behind, which is certainly within striking distance, and certainly small enough that if Bolt makes a small error, Powell could win.
I used to think that if Powell adjusted his arm swing, that his legs would follow favorably, giving him that new top-end form that I thought he needed...now I'm not so sure. I'd like to see him hold back just the tiniest bit in the first half of the race, and see what happens.
Or, just keep doing what he is doing, staying .05 behind Bolt, and hoping that Bolt makes the tiniest of errors and then grips.
While Bolt's all-time best adjusted time is .12 faster than is Powell's, head-to-head racing is the best comparison. IIRC Bolt has never really crushed Powell, except in the 9.58 and 9.69--it always seems like it's pretty close.
I therefore think it's good for Powell to race Bolt as often as possible, even if he loses, so that he goes faster himself by staying in communication with Bolt.
Just thinking out loud again.