Asafa Powell has played an important role in raising brand awareness for NUTRILITE, while serving as a world-class testimonial of our products and their benefits. He has been an advocate for our company and shares our common goal to help all customers achieve optimal health. Asafa was the cornerstone for Team Nutrilite and his presence and support much appreciated.
However, while Asafa has been a positive and engaging supporter of the NUTRILITE brand, his endorsement does not currently fit our sponsorship strategic direction going forward.
To that end, Amway Global / NUTRILITE has not renewed its endorsement with Asafa Powell. Our focus for now will be to invest in our existing Track & Field sponsorships, our relationships with Silver Medal winner Jenn Stuczynski and Gold and Bronze Medal winning Sanya Richards and continued focus on our endorsement with soccer star Ronaldinho and sponsorship of A.C. Milan.
We wish Asafa all the best in his quest to regain his title as "World's Fastest Man."
Asafa didn’t know until 20 minutes before the race
that he would run, but when he did, he delivered a stunning performance to win
the 100-meter sprint at Olympic Park in Melbourne
yesterday!
Here’s the story…
Prior to leaving for Australia, Asafa Powell – Nutrilite-sponsored
athlete & World-Record holder for the 100-meter sprint – injured his knee
after tripping on the stairs in his Jamaican home. Although the injury was
regarded as a minor one, the gash still required stitches. (Ironically… Asafa
was racing around his house to make it to track practice on time!) The four stitches closing the cut were
removed last Saturday night and Powell’s first practice back on the track
didn’t go well… leaving him stiff and sore.
It was questionable whether not he’d be able to compete in
yesterday’s Melbourne Grand Prix. Even on Tuesday, there was still inflammation
inside his knee, and with this year being an Olympic year, athletes are being
particularly careful when it comes to injuries to not take any unnecessary
risks.
All that being said, Asafa ended up competing yesterday
and he ran a blistering 10.04 seconds over 100 meters at Olympic Park in Melbourne last night!
This was despite being immobilized due to his knee for most of his stay in Australia.
Asafa won a host of admirers for the lengths to which he went to race last night.
Asafa Powell, World Record Holder for the 100-meter sprint, was the official starter this weekend for the Avia OC Marathon Presented by Nutrilite. While he was in Irvine, California for the event, he was interviewed by Larry Eder of American Track and Field.
Update on the IAAF World Athlete of the Year Awards:
Sprinter Tyson Gay and middle-distance runner Meseret Defar won the World Athlete of the Year titles at the IAAF awards ceremony that took place in Monte Carlo.
Gay won the 100 and 200-meter sprints at the world championships in Osaka, Japan, and was part of the victorious 400-meter relay team. That made him the fourth man to win three golds at a single worlds.
Defar set the two-mile world record at the Van Damme Memorial meet on Sept. 14, smashing her own mark by almost 12 seconds. She finished in 8 minutes, 58.58 seconds.
Although he didn’t reclaim his World Athlete of the Year Award, Nutrilite-sponsored sprinter Asafa Powell didn’t walk away empty handed. He won men's performance of the year for his world-record time of 9.74 seconds in the 100-meter sprint, set in Rieti, Italy, in September.
A new article on Nutrilite-sponsored athlete Asafa Powell was just posted on the IAAF website today: Powell Will Focus On Own Race Not Opponents To Take Home Beijing Gold.
A couple of cool quotes from Asafa in the article:
– "It's a real big year (2008) for me. I will just try my best not to miss any practice sessions. I will just have to pray to God and ask him to keep me healthy."
– "The main aim is to stay healthy, and once I stay healthy, I don't think anyone can beat me (next season)."
– "I can say that you will see 9.74 erased. I told a lot of people before that than I am going to run 9.77 and I did, and know I am going to do better than 9.74. I want to go 9.6 – that's the aim."
– "But in the future, I would like to focus as less as possible on other athletes; I should focus on my own race. Only in that way should I be able to get my Olympic gold next year."
Nike just recently introduced its new campaign, “Quick is Deadly.” It’s an integrated marketing campaign for the Nike ZOOM footwear line, including print, broadcast, and digital advertising and PR. Nike’s story behind the footwear is that it’s designed for athletes who demand a lower and more responsive cushioning system for that quick feel. Many of Nike’s quickest athletes who are currently using the Nike ZOOM footwear in their training regimen are featured in the campaign. Football player LaDainian Tomlinson, basketball player Steve Nash, runner Lauren Fleshman and Nutrilite-sponsored Olympic sprinters Asafa Powell and Sanya Richards all appear in individual print ads developed by advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy Portland.
Asafa’s print ad is featured on the inside cover of the September 2007 issue of Runner’s World. If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to check it out! Very cool!
There are also some awesome “Quick is Deadly” videos of Asafa on YouTube. Check this one out: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9LPC-qZ6CO0
So, I started off my morning by flipping through the September 2007 issue of Track & Field News magazine. I was pleasantly surprised to find that all four of our Nutrilite-sponsored athletes are featured with photographs in this month's issue!
A little tour of the publication:
pg. 37 – Jenn Stuczynski, American-Record Holder Pole Vault. Jenn's shown in the recap from the US Track & Field Championships, where she was "the very model of efficiency, needing only a single attempt to win."
pg. 41 – Liu Xiang, World-Record Holder 110-meter Hurdles. There's a full-page photo of Liu as a part of the article "Who's Going to Osaka?"
pg. 43 – Sanya Richards, American-Record Holder 400-meter sprint. This article, "Richards Bounces Back," recaps Sanya's performance at the Paris Golden League.
pg. 44 - Liu. A really cool picture of Liu as the crowd is cheering for him at the Lausanne Grand Prix.
pg. 45 – Asafa Powell, World-Record Holder 100-meter Sprint. This article, "Powell Back on Track," recaps Asafa's gold medal performance at the Rom Golden League.
I love this mag. Especially seeings how our Nutrilite athletes are consistently featured in it.
If you don't already get it, you may want to check out www.trackandfieldnews.com. The magazine is published 12 times a year, including an "Annual Edition," which wraps up the whole year in one spot with World Rankings and Top 40 Lists. One of the sweet perks to having a subscription is the free eTrack service you also get. It includes an eTrack Newsletter, an extensive results publication which is produced more than 40 times a year (weekly during the peak season) and sends all the latest results directly to your e-mail address. During the Olympics and World Championships, special daily reports are issued. (Something worth keeping in mind as the '08 Olympics near.)
If you haven't already picked up a copy, you may want to check out today's issue of USA Today.
Asafa is featured in Section C on page 17!
There's a great picture of his world-record run, with the caption "Run of his life."
Asafa, who just broke the world-record in the 100-meter sprint with a time of 9.74 seconds, says in the article that he thinks he can run faster than 9.70 seconds.
Looks like we have a great Asafa vs. Tyson Gay rivalry building up for the 2008 Summer Olympics! The world-record holder vs. the world champion! It's going to be an exciting season next year!
So, this is by far the biggest news I’ve been able to blog about since the Team Nutrilite blog launched. Today, Nutrilite-sponsored athlete Asafa Powell smashed his world record in the 100-meter sprint, running it in 9.74 seconds at the Rieti Grand Prix!
He lowered his current world record by 0.03 seconds, having run the 100-meter sprint in 9.77 seconds three times before. (He set the world record of 9.77 seconds in June 2005 in Athens, Greece. In June 2006, he again ran 9.77, and then did it a third time in August 2006.)
Although there was a strong tail wind, it was below the maximum allowed by track and field's governing body, making the record valid.
He broke the world record in the second heat of competition at the Rieti Grand Prix, which allowed him to qualify for the final. He won gold in the final with a time of 9.78 seconds.
Asafa had a disappointing 3rd place finish at the world championships in Osaka, Japan, and he came to this meet with the mission of bouncing back from that disappointing performance. That he did!
Here’s a cool quote from Asafa that’s in the media right now:
"It's a very fast track. I love this track. It's very bouncy," said Asafa, who trains in Italy three months of the year. "Italy is a good place for me. It's my second home."
