News13 Jun 2011


Bailey edges Blake 9.97 to 9.98 in Strasbourg

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Daniel Bailey of Antigua And Barbuda in the 60m heats (© Getty Images)

13 June 2011Strasbourg, France – Sprinters Daniel Bailey (9.97) and Yohan Blake (9.98) produced fast times at the “Meeting de Strasbourg et des DNA” on Sunday (12) night. Other highlights included Jonathan Borlée’s European-leading 400m (45.04) and 17.29m efforts by both Benjamin Compaoré and Alexis Copello.


Five days after Montreuil where Blake of Jamaica won in 9.96 and Bailey of Antigua placed third in 10.00 while Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre stole the show with a 9.97 national record, fast times were expected in Strasbsourg. In the absence of Lemaitre, the Caribbean duo was keen to run in the Stade de Hautepierre under good climatic conditions.


However, Blake in lane 4 didn’t came out of the blocks as well as he did in Montreuil; on his left, the powerful Dwain Chambers of Great Britain was the quickest to move. However, by 30m, 35-year-old Kim Collins was leading in lane 6 but seemed to loose his rhythm, lost contact with the leaders and stopped running with 40m to go due to a groin pain. At this point, Chambers, Blake and Bailey were in the same line and the later leaned at the tape to win in 9.97 (wind 0.5), a mere 0.01 ahead of Blake. Chambers was third in 10.04.


“The first part of my race and my transition phase were perfect,” analysed Bailey, who came within 0.06 of his national record. “There is still room for improvement as basically, my stride length is a little bit too short.”


After three weeks spent on the European circuit, Bailey will fly back today to Jamaica with instructive experience. “Here I learned how to acclimatise and cope with different eating habits.” Contrary to his training partner Bailey, Blake is going into the all-important Jamaican trials for the World Championships.


“I will now eat right and get prepared,” said Blake. “I have enough time before the trials to fix the poor start I did today. I think I just lost focus, because my training before the race has been perfect.”


On the other hand, Bailey will be able to relax and train. “In Antigua we also have trials but it’s low level compared to Jamaica, so I’m going back to training and don’t know yet where and when I’m running next.”


Bailey, 24, and Blake, 21, virtually inseparable on the track, are training partners, coached by Glen Mills – like World record holder Usain Bolt – enter the same meetings and share the same warm-up routine, but really are not alike. In 12 confrontations against each other at 100m, they tied once, Blake won five times and Bailey’s victory yesterday was his sixth victory, but the first in since 2009.  Blake, more shy, explains their differences regarding the execution of the race: “Bailey is a good starter, while I’m trying to work on it. When I have to run from the back like today, the race is over.” Their physical abilities distinguish them also. “I have more endurance than Bailey,” Blake, 1.80m/76kg explains. “I can run the 200m (his personal best is 19.78) and I’m the fastest of the group at 300m during practice, while Bailey’s groin issue has prevented him from working the longer distances in competition.” The bubbly Bailey, 1.78m/80kg concurs. “He is stronger, I’m quicker. It’s really not a problem to race against a training partner. We know that these competitions are also part of the training. We don’t worry about that, we stay cool and just think about execution.”


Borlée approaching sub-45 territory


Jonathan Borlée, in the absence of his twin brother, European Champion Kévin, won the 400m in 45.04, the best time by a European this year. “I’m happy with the time as I’m not yet prepared to run at 100% since the season will be very long” the Belgian said. “Today my rhythm during the race was good, but I could have run the first part a little bit faster. I managed to accelerate in the last bend. I haven’t yet started the specific preparation which will include 300m and simulations of 400m, which will allow me to improve.”


An important part of this improvement will come from more emphasis on the 200m this season, illustrated by his recent personal best of 20.42. “I used to avoid 200m in order to avoid injuries. But now that I’m more powerful, more physically stable, I hope I can go down to 20.30,” he estimated. “But until the London Olympics, the goal is to run the 400m, as I think Kévin and I can do good things on the one-lap race. Maybe after 2012, if our performances stagnate, we will go for 800m!”


Close battle in the Triple Jump


The men’s Triple Jump provided an interesting dual between Cuban Alexis Copello and Benjamin Compaoré of France. Copello opened the competition with 16.99m, to which Compaoré replied with 17.29m at his second attempt. The French narrowly fouled a 17.60m jump in the third round, which pushed Copello to take some risks, which he did with a 17.29m leap of this own. Local star Compaoré, in spite of adding eight centimetres to his personal best, was not entirely satisfied.


“I know it can go longer,” said the 2006 World junior champion. “Without thinking about it too much, I hoped to do better today. Firstly, I wanted to come here because it’s my home, it’s my club’s meet, so this meeting means a lot to me. I have a lot of memories here, so I would not miss it for anything. Secondly, I wanted to jump without pain. I was very cautious this year after recurring knee problems, and I’m relieved to be able to jump pain free!”


In the women’s sprints, Mariya Ryemyen broke her personal best twice to make a 100m and 200m sweep in 11.21 (0.4) and 22.68 (0.7). The Ukrainian indicated that she will focus more on the 200m at the World Championships, while her teammate Olesya Povh (2nd in 11.24 and 22.80) will eye the 100m. In the 200m, European champion Myriam Soumaré opened her season after some exhibition races and 400m trials with a third place finish in 23.10.


Other notable results include a 82.86m effort by Russian Dmitriy Tarabin in the Javelin Throw. Jason Richardon (USA) won the 110m Hurdles in 13.35 from Frenchmen Garfield Darien (13.41), Samuel Coco-Viloin (13.60) and Dimitri Bascou (13.64). Paul Lonyangat set a new personal best in the 3000m with 7:39.72.


Pierre-Jean Vazel for the IAAF


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