News02 Sep 2009


Bolt 200m and Gay & Powell 100m in Brussels - UPDATED - ÅF Golden League

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Usain Bolt storming towards another World Record of 9.58 seconds in the men's 100m Final with the USA's Tyson Gay in second and Jamaica's Asafa Powell in third (© Getty Images)

The weather looks set to be the key element in what will as ever be a marvellous sprinting line-up for the Belgacom Memorial Van Damme - ÅF Golden League on Friday (4) in the Belgian capital.

Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell might not be meeting in the same race but just the presence of this speedy triumvirate in the sixth and final meeting of the ÅF Golden League is enough to set the pulses racing of the capacity crowd in the King Baudouin Stadium.

World and Olympic champion and World record holder Usain Bolt is of course the clear favourite for the 200m, a distance which he has only run at three meetings so far this summer, the last outing being his spectacular 19.19 World record which took the world crown in Berlin.

The weather is the Jamaicans only potential enemy in Brussels with a forecast presently predicting an 80% chance of rain and temperatures as low as 17C.

But remembering that Bolt ran 19.59 (-0.9m/s) into a head wind in the cold and rain in Lausanne on 7 July, the meeting promoters and audience in Brussels shouldn’t worry. “I wasn’t nervous about the weather,” said Bolt in Lausanne, “I am always having fun when I run and people love to see me.” Bolt will no doubt put on his peerless show whatever the conditions.

"I feel I've run enough 100m and too few 200m," said Bolt to the Press Association on his arrival in Brussels. "I'm physically better now, better than in Zurich. I've slept more and my body feels better.

"Mentally I'm feeling completely okay - I know it's a long season but it's my job to do these meetings and I like performing. I think 19.70sec will be possible - the turns in Brussels are nice."

In the 100m, Tyson Gay, 2007 World champion and the silver medallist behind Bolt this time around in Berlin, has greater things than the weather to worry about, or has he? The decision has been made to have an operation this autumn to hopefully cure the persistent groin injury which has hampered the American this season, and so after his race here and perhaps one other - it is speculated to be the World Athletics Final in Thessaloniki – Gay will go to have surgery. So perhaps with that decision made Gay can now let himself go full throttle, though hopefully not let rip(!), in Brussels.

In Berlin, full speed meant a 9.71 national record and the silver medal for Gay, with Asafa Powell of Jamaica setting his season’s best of 9.84 in bronze. The Jamaican former World record holder is Gay’s main rival on Friday in the 100m, and with Darvis Patton (9.94), Michael Rodgers (9.94) and Lerone Clarke (9.99) among others also flying fast this season its set to be an interesting dash.

Chris Turner for the IAAF

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