The man formerly known as the fastest on the planet has warned Usain Bolt that he faces fresh threats as he strives to regain miracle-maker status.
The triple Olympic and world champion did a high-speed jog through last summer, was beaten by Tyson Gay and ended his season prematurely because of injury. Now the pressure is mounting and Asafa Powell says that the Jamaican sprint factory is ready to unleash new models.
As Powell announced that he will run against Gay in Diamond League meetings in Birmingham in July and London in August, he sounded a cautionary note. “Every year there is going to be someone coming up,” he said. “In 2005 we had Tyson Gay. Then in 2008 Usain burst on to the scene. Now, in 2011, I think Nesta Carter and Yohan Blake are the ones who will join us. People talk about us three, but Nesta is right there in the mix, while Yohan is young and fast and ready to push on and be with the big guys.”
This is no idle chat on behalf of the Jamaican Tourist Board. Carter and Gay tied for the fastest 100 metres in the world last year with 9.78sec. Then came Powell. Bolt was only the third-fastest Jamaican, while Blake ran 9.89 as a 20-year-old.
“To be running that fast at that age is pretty special,” Powell said. “He’s someone to look out for. He’s running well and he is very confident.”
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There is also the issue of whether Bolt, only 24, can overcome the injuries that slowed him last summer. He went to Germany in August and was found to have a tight lower back that was restricting his ability to generate power. An MRI scan showed that his Achilles tendon injury had healed, but some wondered whether the problems were beginning to catch up with him, along with his rivals.
“That’s how it goes sometimes,” Powell said. “When an athlete is up there, he needs to work harder and harder to stay there and that causes problems with your body; it takes so much stress that you get injured. Usain is ridiculously talented and will come back and run fast again, but to go 9.5 again, I don’t know.”
It is easy to read too much into Bolt’s defeat by Gay in Stockholm in August last year. Bolt’s time that day was a pedestrian 9.97 — his best is the record 9.58 — but he affected the air of a man utterly unfazed by slipping mantles. “This is my easy season,” he said at the time. “If you don’t beat me this season, it’s not going to happen because next year is a championship year.”
Powell said that he would be happy with any medal from those World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, in August.
“The last two years have been OK, but this year I want to really go out there, test myself and come home with a medal, maybe two,” he said. “I know I can go fast, but there have been setbacks that have kept me at that pace. Now I am working to go below my personal best. That’s what I want to achieve over the next couple of years.”
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His personal best is 9.72, a world record when he achieved it in 2008. No man has run below 9.80 more frequently, although he has not done that for two years. His championship record is one of underachievement, two bronze medals from successive World Championships the pinnacle of his solo work, but he is only 28 and ready to seize back his status; Bolt used to refer to Powell as “The Fast Man” until that billing seemed ironic at best.
“I wouldn’t say it was encouraging that Usain got beat last year,” he said. “But it does show that anyone can be beaten. If you slack up, you will lose because there are guys ready to jump on your back. If Usain makes a mistake, he’ll get punished. Same for Tyson. There is no Superman out there.”
Perhaps not, but while Christophe Lemaître, from France, attracts huge attention, it is worth noting that Blake is the fastest 20-year-old we have seen. Indeed, Bolt has identified him as the future. “Blake’s the man,” he said in 2009. “He’s very, very determined.”
• For tickets or information about Gay and Powell in the Aviva Series, go to uka.org.uk/aviva-series or telephone 0800 055 6056
Profiles of pace
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Nesta Carter Age 25.
Trains With Powell at MVP Track and Field Club in Kingston, Jamaica.
Honours Olympic gold in the 4 x 100 metres, 2008.
Why we should be excited His 100 metres personal best, set in August last year, is 9.78sec, making him the fourth-fastest man in history. He has improved by an impressive 0.2sec in two years.
Fact Says he fancies long jump, too.
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Yohan Blake Age 21.
Trains With Bolt at Racers Track Club, Kingston.
Honours World Junior Championships gold in the 4 x 100 metres, 2006.
Why we should be excited He is the joint-youngest athlete to go under 10sec and his 200 metres best, 19.78, makes him the thirteenth fastest of all time.
Fact Served a three-month suspension in 2009 for testing positive for a minor stimulant, even though it was not on the banned list.