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Wednesday, February
22, 2006 World's
fastest man is ready to fly
The world's fastest man is just one small step away from getting on a plane and flying to the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. Asafa Powell told The Age (an Australian newspaper) yesterday he is in "good form" and looking forward to coming to Melbourne next week after a final tune-up competition this weekend. "It will be great to get out there and get rid of the long trip," Powell said from his home in Jamaica. At one stage, Powell was reported to be in doubt for the Games because of a slow recovery from the groin injury that put him out of last year's world championships in Helsinki. The injury struck within a month of Powell's blazing to a world record 9.77 seconds for 100 metres at a meeting in Athens. Powell said he was over that now. "I'm in good form," he said. He has run in two meetings in Kingston in the past four weeks and will race again this weekend. Barring the unexpected, he will arrive in Australia on Tuesday. Powell returned to racing in late January, with a 48-second 400 metres. Two weeks later, he ran both a 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 metres relay at another meeting in Kingston. He ran 47 seconds for his leg of the longer relay and the squad of Powell, Michael Frater, Ainsley Waugh and Winston Smith ran 38.87 seconds for the 4 x 100. "The 400s have been a pretty good, and that's a really good test of my form," Powell said. For all Powell's undeniable speed, his one senior championships medal was in the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games 4 x 100, when he and Jamaica finished centimetres behind England, both teams running 38.62 seconds. Watch out for Jamaica, this time, Powell says, despite the strength already being shown by Australia and England. Powell described the 38.87 as "OK for a first competition for the guys". "Jamaica will be in pretty good form," Powell said, "but it is always good to have a challenge." The Victorian championships at the MCG last weekend suggested that the Commonwealth Games track will be fast. "It's a fast surface," Olympic relay runner Adam Basil said after winning the first race on the specially laid track. " … a few weeks' sun on the surface will make it really quick." Mark Lewis-Francis of England was delighted with his performance in winning the invitational 100 metres on Saturday night. "I'm shocked and excited at the time, it's my first run and I've hardly done any speed work," said Lewis-Francis. "I can't believe what has happened." The English sprinter ran 10.22 seconds in his first race since last year. Behind him, Australians Daniel Batman, Adam Miller, Joshua Ross and Matt Shirvington all ran under 10.30. The tailwind was a helpful 1.9 metres per second. Indeed, of the 40 races held over 100 metres on the weekend, 31 had a tailwind. Throw in Powell and his teammate Frater and there could be some fast times next month. |
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