Fast Running Out of Chances

By Len Johnson

Asafa Powell is an enigma. As often as he delights by running fast when least expected, so often he dismays by running poorly when expectations are highest.

That's the image, at least. From the post-Olympic season of 2004 till the emergence of Usain Bolt in the last year, Powell was the man at 100 metres. He set the world record in 2005, briefly shared it with the now-discredited Justin Gatlin in 1986, and held it on his own through 2007 and into the Beijing Olympic year.

Even after the twin thunder-Bolts _ Usain's world records of 9.72 and 9.69 _ and an ignominious fifth in the Beijing Olympic final, Powell came back to record his own 9.72 in Lausanne. This followed the same pattern as in 2007, when Powell finished third to Tyson Gay in the world championships final in Osaka.

Then, he came back to set a new world record 9.74 in Rieti, a performance seen as underlining his failure to perform when it most mattered. The Lausanne run was judged in the same harsh light.

This weekend, Powell is due to kick off his northern hemisphere summer campaign with the 100 at the Reebok Games in New York, the same meeting at which Bolt stunned Tyson Gay with the first of his two world records last year.

He does so as a man who is fast running out of chances to claim greatness. Sometime this year, Powell will supplant Sydney 2000 Olympic champion Maurice Greene as the man who has run the most legal sub-10s in history. Greene has 52; Powell has 46 and in the past two years has run 15 and 12, respectively. At anything like that rate, Powell was pass Greene in 2009.

If the sharing of the stage with first Gatlin, then Gay and now Bolt has meant Powell cannot claim to have redefined 100 metres sprinting on his own, he is certainly the most prolific of the trio in doing so over the past five years. By any measure _ absolute or relative _ Asafa Powell has simply run faster, more often, than any other sprinter in history. He has made the 9.7 hundred commonplace. Unfortunately, he is looking increasingly likely to notch up another _ unwanted _ distinction as one those athletes who never won a major championship despite performing at the highest levels.

Powell is running fast, but also fast running out of chances to claim a major title. Bolt's presence puts a formidable new hurdle in his way.

Powell's failing on the big occasions has usually been put down to temperament, a theory he has sometimes supported himself. But Powell has also mentioned physical problems, citing hamstring, knee and shoulder injuries in the run-up to Beijing (the latter requiring surgery).

"I was really training very hard last year and to get an injury and have surgery in May, two and a half months before the Olympics, put me way behind," Powell told Uninversal Sports last week. Powell said his fitness level was lacking and contributed to his disappointing fifth-place finish in Beijing.

"Personally, I don't think I had any mental problems," Powell said of his Olympic experience. "I think it was a physical problem because of all the injuries that I got last year and set me back big-time. I was confident going into the Games. I started to feel a bit tired going through the rounds because I didn't get to do much background strength work in."

Whatever the problems, Powell is running out of time to fix them. You hope he can. An athlete as good as Powell should have a major title to their name.

ends


 

Len Johnson was The Melbourne Age athletics writer for over 20 years, covering five Olympics, 10 world championships and five Commonwealth Games. He is the author of The Landy Era, From Nowhere to the Top of the World, and a former national class distance runner (2.19.32 marathon) who trained with Chris Wardlaw and Robert de Castella.