Former world record holder Asafa Powell [Images] won his third consecutive 100 metres race of the season at the Monaco Grand Prix on Monday in his last major meeting before the Beijing [Images] Olympics [Images] starting next week.

The Jamaican Commonwealth champion clocked 9.82 seconds, his best time this year. Only compatriot Usain Bolt [Images], who took the world record from Powell on May 31, and American world champion Tyson Gay [Images] have run faster in 2008.

Neither Powell nor Gay were in Tuesday's race where American Darvis Patton finished second in 9.98 while Powell's compatriot and training partner Nesta Carter took third place in 10.02.

Daniel Kipchirchir Komen set a year's best of three minutes 31.49 seconds for the men's 1,500 metres, narrowly beating compatriot Shedrack Kibet Korir, who came second in 3:31.94.

Jamaica's Melaine Walker repulsed the challenge of American Tiffany Ross-Williams to clock a year's best 53.48 seconds for the women's 400 metres hurdles. Ross-Williams finished a close second in 53.54 with compatriot Sheena Tosta third in 53.58.

Portugal's Naide Gomes also set a year's best in the women's long jump, with a leap of 7.12 metres, eight centimetres further than the previous top mark she shared with Russia's [Images] Lyudmila Kolchanova.