Asafa Powell purportedly dumps Nike

June 10, 2010

KINGSTON, Jamaica – REPORTS out of Rome have indicated that elite Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell has severed ties with his long time sponsor Nike in favor of a potential new contract with Asian sportswear company Li Ning.

An end to the nearly six-year contract between the former 100m world record holder and the sportswear giant was announced yesterday (June 9) by trackalerts.com.

Powell’s agent Paul Doyle confirmed to the media house that the sprinter, who is best known for his world record setting performance at the IAAF Grand Prix in 2007, would be seeking a more lucrative deal with a new company, believed to be Li Ning, in the near future.

Doyle was reluctant to disclose the details of the new sponsorship package, however.

“It’s not Nike…that’s all I can say right now. I am actually having a meeting this evening with the new company and they are going to be the ones to decide how we release the information,” he told trackalerts.com.

It had been previously reported that Nike wanted to greatly reduce its investment in the aging Powell by cutting its package from US $750 000 to less than US $300 000. Powell’s team had rejected the new offer and he has been without major sponsorship since the end of 2009.

Doyle said he would not “comment on the numbers” of the new deal, but indicated that it was more substantial than the offer put forward by Nike for renewal. He also would not give any indication as to the length of the proposed deal.

Li Ning Company Limited is a sportswear company based in the People’s Republic of China and has grown over the years to become a competitor of industry leaders such as Nike and Adidas. According to the company’s website, worldwide revenues for the 2009 fiscal year hovered above US $1.2 billion.

By Ryan Haas,SKNVibes.com