French long-jumper Salim Sdiri was rushed to hospital after being speared by a javelin thrown by Finland's Tero Pitkamaki at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Rome.

The accident occurred in the third round of the javelin when Pitkamaki, challenging to defend his Golden Jackpot title, saw his throw veer to the left.

Leaving the throwing arcs it hit the 28-year-old Frenchman, who was lying fourth in his competition, in his right side.

An ambulance arrived and the 2004 Olympic finalist taken to the meeting's media mix zone where, 15 minutes after the incident, he received urgent medical treatment before being taken to hospital.

Fortunately his condition was not considered to be life-threatening but the incident overshadowed the whole meeting, where Asafa Powell returned from a groin injury with a superb 100 metres display.

The 24-year-old Jamaican world record holder, ahead of next month's World Championships. showed he has benefited from a few weeks' rest by being first out of his blocks and accelerating away to claim an unchallenged victory in a season's-best time of 9.90seconds.

Powell slowed in the final 10 metres and could probably have bettered his world figure of 9.77sec but certainly suggested he will be more than a match for the USA's Tyson Gay, who heads this year's rankings, when they clash in Osaka next month.

Bahamian Derrick Atkins, a half-cousin of Powell, was a distant second in 10.02 with Churandy Martina of the Dutch Antilles third in 10.10.

"It was my first race after the injury and I am happy with the time and the way I ran the race," said Powell said.

"I eased up at the finish as I did not want to put pressure on after the injury.

Then he predicted: "The clash between me and Tyson Gay will be one of the showdowns of the year."

Oscar Pistorious had a more than useful warm-up ahead of his clash with Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner in Sunday's Norwich Union British Grand Prix.

The 20-year-old South African double-amputee, who runs on carbon fibre blades, finished a close second, losing by just two strides to Italy's Stefano Braciola.

Pistorious was last out of his blocks and in the middle of the field coming off the final bend only to power past three of his rivals to finish 0.18 behind Braciola, who clocked 46.72.

Many leading athletes competing in Rome welcomed Pistorious' participation in able-bodied competitions and hope he will be cleared to compete in next year's Olympic Games.

But there is a massive debate whether he is receiving mechanical assistance with a technical device and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) are closely monitoring this weekend's races before making any announcement on his future.

"I thank the crowd for the support - the spectators were behind me," said the 2004 Paralympic 200m champion, who had his legs amputated below the knee aged just five months.

"I am looking forward to competing against Jeremy Wariner in Sheffield - I am still very confident of going to Beijing."

Michael Rimmer, making his Golden League 800m debut, mixed it with his more experienced rivals down the home straight but had to settle for fifth in one minute 46.57secs after being blocked behind his rivals as Saudi Arabia's Mohammed Al-Salhi won in 1:46.18.

Michelle Perry posted a world 100m hurdles leader of 12.44 to maintain her interest in the £500,000 Golden Jackpot.

So to did Sanya Richards, winner of the 400m, in 49.77 and pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who cleared 4.90m.

But a distressed Pitkamaki understandably lost interest in his javelin event after the incident with Sdiri and finished runner-up behind Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen, who threw 88.36m.

Meeting organisers later confirmed Sdiri had returned to his hotel room.

Pitkamaki sent his best wishes, saying: "My only wish is that the long jumper is okay and I hope that it was just a scratch.

"I rotated a bit too much to the left and it just went into the jumping area."