10.04 meeting record for Asafa Powell at the World Athletics Tour meet in Melbourne in 2008 (© Getty Images)
Jamaica’s Asafa Powell, who has set or equalled the 100m World record four times, will compete in the Sydney Track Classic on 28 February his club president said in Kingston yesterday (1).
The Jamaican flyer will also compete in Australia's premier athletics meet, in Melbourne on 5 March.
The ‘World Athletics Tour Melbourne’, is an IAAF Grand Prix status meet within the 25 meetings of 2009 IAAF World Athletics Tour, while the ‘Sydney Classic’ is one of a select group of Area meetings at which points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, to be held on 12-13 September in Thessaloniki, Greece.
Still history's second fastest man with his best time last year of 9.72sec, behind only Jamaican countryman Usain Bolt's Olympic gold medal run of 9.69, Powell will be joined in Australia by nine of his MVP club training partners.
One of those will be the Olympic women's 400m Hurdles gold medallist and record holder Melaine Walker. It is not known whether she will line up against Sydney's two-time World 400m Hurdles champion Jana Rawlinson who plans to begin her world title defence at the sensational Sydney Track Classic at Homebush.
Olympic 400m silver medallist Shericka Williams, 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games 100m hurdles champion Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Nadia Cunningham are the other women making the trip.
Foster-Hylton is likely to resume her rivalry with Sally McLellan, the Olympic 100m Hurdles silver medallist, who fell at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
Accompanying Powell will be fellow members of the Olympic gold medal-winning 4x100m relay including Nesta Carter and Michael Frater.
Ainsley Waugh and the Barbadian pair of Andrew Hines and Wilan Louis will also compete.
Powell started his season in Australia last year, but did not compete in Sydney because he had four stitches in his knee. However several days later he ‘jogged’ to the finish in Melbourne in 10.04.
Although he reached the Beijing Olympic 100m final, Powell disappointed finishing in fifth place, but he anchored Jamaica's relay to a World record with a stunning run. Shortly after the Olympics he ran a personal best of 9.72sec, the fifth consecutive year he has run a PB under the coaching of Stephen Francis who will accompany the MVP squad to Australia.
President of the MVP club, Bruce James, confirmed the trip to Australia yesterday but said Olympic 100m gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser and silver medallist Sherone Simpson would not make this tour.
“Fraser is a student at the University of Technology and in the MVP track club, we take the education of our student athletes very seriously and therefore she is going to remain in Jamaica in university attending classes,'' James said.
“Simpson (who tied with fellow Jamaican Kerron Stewart for second in the Beijing 100m) will not be attending as she continues to recover from surgery (to her knee) in October 2008. She's on a good path of recovery and we're not going to interfere with that as we follow the doctor's instructions.''
James said he regards the two-week training camp to Australia, which includes two competitive meets, as part of the MVP club's yearly routine.
“The first time we went to Australia was in 2006 for the Melbourne Commonwealth Games and you might recall that 2006 was an excellent year for MVP, we did again in 2008 and that was a great experience again ... so spending two weeks in Australia seems to be part of the positive approach that we take to some of our elite athletes, so we'll continue doing that,'' he said.
Mike Hurst for the IAAF
