Xavier Carter (21) of the United States wins the men's 200 metres in 20.23 ahead of Asafa Powell (28) of Jamaica at the Prefontaine Classic grand prix in Eugene, Oregon, yesterday. Powell was third in 20.55. - Reuters

Jamaica's Melaine Walker clocked a 2007 world-leading 54.14 seconds to win the women's 400 metres hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic grand prix meeting in Eugene, Oregon, yesterday.

Walker, a member of the MVP outfit coached by Stephen Francis, defeated Americans Sheena Johnson, 54.44, and Tiffany Ross-Williams 54.95.

National 800m record holder Kenia Sinclair (1:58.61) took second in the event behind Mozambique's Maria Mutola who won at the meet for 15 consecutive times in a world best 1:58.33.

Xavier Carter powered past fellow American Wallace Spearmon to win a star-studded 200 metres in which Jamaica's Asafa Powell placed third in 20.55.

Carter clocked 20.23 seconds into a solid headwind on a misty afternoon for the narrow win. Spearmon finished second in 20.25.

Carter clocked the second-fastest 200m of all-time last year (19.63 seconds) but finished fourth in a Los Angeles race last month.

"Just because I wasn't winning (earlier this year) doesn't mean I had lost it," he said.

"But all this running right here really doesn't count until you win the big one," Carter said of August's world championships.

Powell was glad to be going back to the 100m, beginning with Friday's Golden League meeting in Oslo.

"It was a bit too cold so I didn't try to push it," Powell said. The men's 400 metres went to Gary Kikaya of the Democratic Republic of Congo in 44.93, with Jamaica's Michael Blackwood fifth in 45.61.

The women's 100m hurdles was won in 12.51 by American Michelle Perry. Jamaica's Brigitte Foster-Hylton was down to run but did not start.

LIU WINS

Olympic champion and world record holder Liu Xiang of China won the 110m hurdles in 13.23 seconds after American record holder Dominique Arnold hit the sixth hurdle and ended seventh.

Kenyan Daniel K. Komen ran the fastest mile on American soil, clocking 3:48.28, and Craig Mottram won the infrequently contested two-mile race in an Australian record 8:03.50.

The time was the sixth fastest ever ran in the event and a national record by nine seconds, Mottram said.

Two other 2007 world-leading performances were set in the meeting at the site of the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials. Ethiopian Gelete Burka clocked 4:00.48 in the women's 1,500m and Jamaican Melaine Walker won the women's 400m hurdles in 54.14 seconds.

Olympic bronze medallist Paul Koech dominated the 3,000m steeplechase, winning in 8:08.08, and upcoming American Nick Symmonds outran Russian Olympic gold medallist Yuriy Borzakovskiy to win the men's 800m in 1:44.54.