In his meteoric rise to the top of the sprinting world rankings, Powell has shown not just a muscular power reminiscent of Haseley Crawford, the Trinidadian who won the Olympic title in Montreal 28 years ago, but a serenity way beyond his years.
Not that long ago, Powell was kicking a ball about on the fields of Charlemont high school in Jamaica, wondering what he might do with his life. Now, on the eve of the 100m final, the double last achieved by the great Carl Lewis does not seem such a distant dream.
Powell was in awesome form in the heats yesterday. Twice a winner over defending champion Maurice Greene this year, he appeared to have the measure of the American again when they met in the sixth heat. The Jamaican was level with Greene at 70m, glanced to his left to confirm he was going to qualify then eased up to finish second behind the three-time world champion.
Francis Obikwelu gave an even more startling exhibition of controlled power. The Nigerian-born Portuguese flew into the lead then slowed almost as dramatically, but still crossed the line in a national record of 9.93sec.
Shawn Crawford, the fastest man in the world this year, discarded the cap and sunglasses he had sported in the first round to clock the fastest time of the heats. His time of 9.89 was only one-hundredth of a second outside the season’s best.
Advertisement
But all eyes will be on Powell today. “He’s just a normal kid, you know,” says Dennis Johnson, director of athletics at the University of Technology in Kingston, where Powell studies, and head of Jamaica’s formidable athletics programme. “He comes from a country area, his family are humble folks. People are all excited, but he’ll be all right.”
That is a ringing endorsement of Powell’s temperament, which will be sorely tested in the final stages of the 100m tonight. Well before his arrival in Athens, Greene had tightened the psychological screw after those two defeats by Powell in the space of a week.
“You gotta pay close attention to your body,” said the defending Olympic champion. “A lot of things come into play at the Olympics.” The duel between the ageing champion and the young pretender has developed a cutting edge, not least because Powell is one of the representatives of a new generation of Caribbean sprinters who have elected to stay at home instead of pursuing their careers in the American college system.
Powell is all Jamaica’s own work, and in the midst of the greatest show on earth, no pressure will be greater than fulfilling a national destiny. For all their impressive sprinting traditions, Powell would be his island’s first 100m Olympic champion. As Olympic champion, Asafa Powell — Safa as he is known to his teammates — would surely be accorded a statue alongside Bob Marley.
“I don’t know how to think,” he says. “I’m not trying to forget I’m favourite, I’m trying to keep it in my mind all the time. I want to win the gold, but that sounds kind of scary because nobody had heard of me this time last year. It’s all happened so fast.”
Advertisement
In 9.91sec, to be precise, the time that propelled Powell ahead of Greene and Collins one July night in south London and straight to the top of the world rankings, Powell’s gentle acceptance of the feat as telling as the time. “No,” he said last week, “I wasn’t surprised by what I did. It was pretty much the sort of time I’d been doing in training and I’d been preparing long and hard for that meeting.”
Just to confirm his supremacy, he handed Greene another defeat in Zurich the following week, adding insult to injury by apologising for his sluggish time of 9.97sec. Greene retreated to lick his wounds but hit back yesterday in the psychological stakes.
Powell found himself facing Greene in the fifth heat of the second round of the 100m qualifying. A sub-10sec performance would normally have been pleasing, but Greene pushed Powell into second, recording 9.93sec. It sets up this evening’s intriguing final two rounds perfectly and may very well have cost Powell his edge.
The youngest of six brothers from the St Catherine district of Jamaica, Powell’s high school years were not spent in one of the noted sports nurseries on the island. His athletic education came instead from Donovan, one of his brothers, who reached the semi-finals of the world indoor championships in 1999. Powell’s inexperience is the point of weakness that Greene, Collins and Shaun Crawford, who has run the year’s quickest time of 9.88sec, will hope to exploit tonight.
Collins proved himself the master of disguise in pacing himself through the earlier rounds at the world championships in Paris, and emerged as the freshest athlete in the field for the final. “It takes more than just talent to win a major championship,” he said recently.
Advertisement
Powell also learnt a lesson in Paris after being caught up in the furore over John Drummond’s ejection. With both sprinters being disqualified for double false starts, Powell’s dignified acceptance of the punishment was in notable contrast to the boorish behaviour of the American.
“I will take it easy in the first two rounds, then go a little bit faster in the semi and give it everything in the final,” Powell said during the week.
“I think there’s a 9.86 or a 9.84 inside me. I can’t wait to show what I can do.”
Patience is not one of Powell’s virtues.
Men’s 100m final, today, BBC1, 9.10pm