Asafa Powell at 2009 Sydney Track Classic (© Getty Images)
With history against him, not to mention a forecast headwind and showers, Asafa Powell will try to break 10 seconds in his first 100m race of the year when the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2009 recommences in Melbourne at Olympic Park on Thursday night (5 March).
The Melbourne meeting is a Grand Prix status event, the second of 25 fixtures of the IAAF World Athletics Tour 2009.
“I really want to go below 10 seconds,” Powell said. “It’s going to be an exciting year. I’m right behind Usain (Bolt) and trying to make my way to the top.”
Attending the John Landy Lunch in Melbourne - where he mingled with legendary distance runners Ron Clarke and visiting Americans Jim Ryun (the former world mile and 1500m records holder) and Billy Mills (1964 Tokyo Olympic 10,000m champion) – the happy-go-lucky Jamaican was reminded there have only been four sub-10 100m performances in Australia. They are Maurice Greene’s 9.87 at the Olympics, Frankie Fredericks’ 9.94 in 1999, another by Greene (9.99) in 1998 and the other by Ato Boldon (9.99) all of which have been recorded in Sydney.
‘Sub-10 is easy, so is 9.8’
The fastest time ever run in Melbourne Powell’s 10.3 jogging to victory in his semi and the final of the 2006 Commonwealth Games. He also walked over the line in 10.04 this time last year in the Melbourne Track Classic.
Asked today whether he felt he had 9.99 “covered” this week, Powell confidently replied “Yes” and when put under pressure as to whether he could say the same for 9.94, he offered “That’s harder, but yes”.
World 100m record holder Usain Bolt has been marching in the same direction so far this season. Bolt has raced a couple of 400m sprints in Kingston (in 46.35, then 45.54) and announced he will open his account for 2009 in the 100m at the 11th Lucozade / GC Foster Classic in Spanish Town, St Catherine on 14 March.
Powell, the former World record holder and second-fastest in history over 100m, also opened his season with a two-second best, 45.94sec 400m at last weekend’s Sydney Track Classic. His last nine races over 100m have all been sub-10, with seven of those under 9.9.
“Sub-10 is easy, so is 9.8,’’ Powell said in Sydney. But the weather forecast may present his biggest challenge, other than training partner Nesta Carter who was an Olympic gold medallist on Jamaica’s World record breaking 4x100m relay in Beijing.
Australian opposition includes Melbourne’s Aaron Rouge-Serret who won the sprint double in Sydney as well as four-time former Australian title winner Joshua Ross and national recordholder Patrick Johnson.
Commonwealth Games rematch in hurdles
The women’s 100m Hurdles shapes as an intriguing rematch between Australia’s surprise Olympic silver medallist Sally McLellan, who ran 12.64sec in the Beijing final, and Jamaica’s Brigitte Foster-Hylton who finished sixth just 0.02sec behind. Foster-Hylton is a member of Jamaican coach Stephen Francis’s MVP club and his first great protégé.
The last time Foster-Hylton and McLellan met in Melbourne was at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The Australian fell and the Jamaican won gold.
National title at stake over 5000
Boosting the prestige of the Melbourne programme, the men’s 5000m has been accorded national championships status. The favourite is Beijing Olympian Collis Birmingham although last year’s Oslo Dream Mile winner, Andrew Baddeley, has joined the field. Also testing his talent at this level is the exciting 18-year-old Australian Ryan Gregson.
Gregson improved his best from 4:01 to 3:37.24 to placed third in the Sydney 1500m last Saturday and while he intends to specialise in the metric mile he should not be dismissed as a threat at 5000m.
“There are three or four guys around the 13:40 mark. If it’s slow and tactical and it’s down to the last kilometre, who knows? I’ve got good 1500m speed. I could be there,’’ Gregson said today. He said his main goal for March is to place top-10 in the junior 8km race at the World Cross-Country championship in Jordan.
Hooker is just gaining experience
Steve Hooker, who was born and raised in Melbourne, will receive a great reception in his first competition there since winning the Olympic Pole Vault.
While talk these days routinely links Hooker to attempts on Sergey Bubka’s World record, Hooker himself is modest and responsible in trying to find a balance between elevating the coverage of athletics and lowering the expectations on him.
“I’ve had 12 attempts at a World record 6.16m in four competitions,” Hooker said. “It’s just getting the experience. The first time you jump 6m you’re intimidated. It took me a few comps before at 6m before I felt comfortable. It’s the same sort of thing at 6.16m. It’s new territory. I thought attempting the height was interesting and entertaining because I’m having fun with my competitions and a new experience to see what it felt like jumping at that height.’’
There will also be considerable interest in how Xavier “X-Man” Carter – history’s third fastest over 200m – performs in his comeback to the event in Melbourne following surgery to remove a bone spur from his ankle. In his return to competition this year Carter has so far run three 400m races two indoors and a 45.75 run outdoors in Sydney last Saturday (28 Feb).
Mike Hurst (Sydney Daily Telegraph) for the IAAF
