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From The Sunday Times
July 27, 2008
Asafa Powell ready to chase Olympic glory
The Jamaican won at Crystal Palace and declared himself ready for Beijing
Andrew Longmore
div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;}ASAFA POWELL rumbled through his 100m at Crystal Palace on Friday night and then declared himself content with his form and fitness going into Beijing. His thick Jamaican drawl brooked little argument. Though Tyson Gay, the world champion, had withdrawn from the Aviva Grand Prix, Powell had claimed the prized scalp of his compatriot and 100m world record-holder, Usain Bolt, in Stockholm in midweek. His meeting with Gay, the American, could wait. “I’m ready,” he said.
The problem for the 25-year-old and for his long-time coach, Stephen Francis, is that nobody, least of all Powell himself, knows how ready. In Stockholm, Powell admitted a loss of concentration in the final strides spoilt an otherwise technically perfect race. “A whole bunch of crap was going through my head,” he says with disarming honesty.
It is hard not to warm to the ambling figure at a south London athletics track late last week, head swathed in a hood, hands thrust deep into pockets. He is here at the behest of Nike, his sponsor, and a pair of his new running shoes lie on the table, lighter than air, yet capable of absorbing the pressure exerted by a 200lb man in 45 strides - 48 if he doesn’t listen to his coach - down a 100m runway.
Powell had travelled to Nike headquarters to make a model of his foot - the right, at 289mm, two millimetres bigger than the left - and had wondered on the way just how a preacher’s son from Kingston, Jamaica, had managed to travel so far.
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This morning, tired after his exertions on the track the night before, Powell wants only to sleep. “I guess the whole world knows I’m not a good trainer,” he says. “But I’ve been pushing myself to the limit this season. Since I started running, every year at the end of the season I looked back and said what if I had trained harder, what if I had run to the finish line full out, and for four years I’ve been doing exactly the same thing. I felt I didn’t know my true potential. So I forced myself to take the extra step, put 100% into practice.”
For all his new-found work ethic, Powell is still trying to outrun his talent. A self-confessed lazybones, it is not the physical side that hurts now, it’s the mind. All those stages and phases to think about, the long strides at the start that his coach assures will pay dividends at the end, the transition into the upright full flow, the need to keep a solid rhythm through the middle of the race and run right through the tape.
A slo-mo replay from his race on Friday shows an athlete deep in thought for 9.94sec, still trying to marry the schoolboy’s natural gift with the professional’s quest for perfection. It has to come right two weeks from now in the main stadium in Beijing or Powell’s reputation for failing on the big stage will be set in stone. Youth (Athens Olympics, fifth) and inexperience (Osaka world championships, third) are no longer valid excuses. Powell is in his prime, a honed athlete; Beijing should be his time.
Powell runs, you sense, not to boost his self-esteem like Maurice Greene but because he is good and because he has a duty. The youngest of six boys, Powell was about to head to the national championships when news came through that his brother Michael had been shot dead in New York. The following year another brother, Donovan, himself a talented track athlete, died from a heart attack playing football, also in the US.
“If they were still alive, they would be stood over there making a whole bunch of noise,” Powell says. “Those two brothers, I loved them a lot and I miss them.” The statement is so straight and so powerful that, even five years on, it catches in the throat. “When I lost Michael, I was destroyed. I was in my track gear leaving for the trials and I saw my mum crying and going crazy. When I found out I just dropped my bag and didn’t care about anything anymore.
“It would have been easy to give up right then. But Donovan called from the States and told me not to give up, that Michael would have wanted me to keep running and I went out there and didn’t really concentrate on anything.
“I just ran. Faith was important to the family then. My parents [William and Cislin, both pastors at the Redemption National Church of God] had been going through a lot and when I came up and started running, all my Mum could do was cry. Even now she don’t watch me run, she’ll only watch the replays. She won’t watch the Olympic final.”
Powell was in Miami when another piece of news reached him. On a wet night in Randall’s Island, New York, Usain Bolt, his friend and long-time training partner, had just run 9.72sec. Powell’s first reaction was disbelief, his second relief, the third was irritation. From being the fastest man on the planet, he was no longer the fastest man in his parish. Calm soon returned.
“When you’re the world record-holder you’re always expected to win,” he explains. “They all want to beat the world record-holder.” And now, his slow smile says, it’s Usain’s turn to feel the pressure.
Perhaps in an effort to lessen the hype, Bolt has yet to commit to running the 100m in Beijing, though Powell knows he will.
Gay, Bolt and Powell train on the same stretch of grass in the same dilapidated stadium and lift weights in the same gym. For a fraction less than 10sec, the world will still be hypnotised by the moment.
“People will watch, whatever happens,” says Powell. “They want to know who’s going to win. Track and field is the least watched sport in the world and the drugs issue is the reason why. If you’re running fast, you must be taking drugs. But all of us go through years and years to get here, you don’t want to be taking anything.”
It’s a simple philosophy and you hope it’s true. Is it possible, then, to run under 9.7sec? “It’s possible for me,” says Powell. “I don’t know about anyone else.”
9.74
The fastest 100m time Jamaica’s Asafa Powell has run. Set in Rieti, Italy in September 2007, it bettered his previous best by 0.03sec and was the sprinter’s second world record - until Usain Bolt improved it last month when he ran 9.72sec in New York
July 27, 2008
Asafa Powell ready to chase Olympic glory
The Jamaican won at Crystal Palace and declared himself ready for Beijing
Andrew Longmore
div#related-article-links p a, div#related-article-links p a:visited {color:#06c;}ASAFA POWELL rumbled through his 100m at Crystal Palace on Friday night and then declared himself content with his form and fitness going into Beijing. His thick Jamaican drawl brooked little argument. Though Tyson Gay, the world champion, had withdrawn from the Aviva Grand Prix, Powell had claimed the prized scalp of his compatriot and 100m world record-holder, Usain Bolt, in Stockholm in midweek. His meeting with Gay, the American, could wait. “I’m ready,” he said.
The problem for the 25-year-old and for his long-time coach, Stephen Francis, is that nobody, least of all Powell himself, knows how ready. In Stockholm, Powell admitted a loss of concentration in the final strides spoilt an otherwise technically perfect race. “A whole bunch of crap was going through my head,” he says with disarming honesty.
It is hard not to warm to the ambling figure at a south London athletics track late last week, head swathed in a hood, hands thrust deep into pockets. He is here at the behest of Nike, his sponsor, and a pair of his new running shoes lie on the table, lighter than air, yet capable of absorbing the pressure exerted by a 200lb man in 45 strides - 48 if he doesn’t listen to his coach - down a 100m runway.
Powell had travelled to Nike headquarters to make a model of his foot - the right, at 289mm, two millimetres bigger than the left - and had wondered on the way just how a preacher’s son from Kingston, Jamaica, had managed to travel so far.
Related Links
This morning, tired after his exertions on the track the night before, Powell wants only to sleep. “I guess the whole world knows I’m not a good trainer,” he says. “But I’ve been pushing myself to the limit this season. Since I started running, every year at the end of the season I looked back and said what if I had trained harder, what if I had run to the finish line full out, and for four years I’ve been doing exactly the same thing. I felt I didn’t know my true potential. So I forced myself to take the extra step, put 100% into practice.”
For all his new-found work ethic, Powell is still trying to outrun his talent. A self-confessed lazybones, it is not the physical side that hurts now, it’s the mind. All those stages and phases to think about, the long strides at the start that his coach assures will pay dividends at the end, the transition into the upright full flow, the need to keep a solid rhythm through the middle of the race and run right through the tape.
A slo-mo replay from his race on Friday shows an athlete deep in thought for 9.94sec, still trying to marry the schoolboy’s natural gift with the professional’s quest for perfection. It has to come right two weeks from now in the main stadium in Beijing or Powell’s reputation for failing on the big stage will be set in stone. Youth (Athens Olympics, fifth) and inexperience (Osaka world championships, third) are no longer valid excuses. Powell is in his prime, a honed athlete; Beijing should be his time.
Powell runs, you sense, not to boost his self-esteem like Maurice Greene but because he is good and because he has a duty. The youngest of six boys, Powell was about to head to the national championships when news came through that his brother Michael had been shot dead in New York. The following year another brother, Donovan, himself a talented track athlete, died from a heart attack playing football, also in the US.
“If they were still alive, they would be stood over there making a whole bunch of noise,” Powell says. “Those two brothers, I loved them a lot and I miss them.” The statement is so straight and so powerful that, even five years on, it catches in the throat. “When I lost Michael, I was destroyed. I was in my track gear leaving for the trials and I saw my mum crying and going crazy. When I found out I just dropped my bag and didn’t care about anything anymore.
“It would have been easy to give up right then. But Donovan called from the States and told me not to give up, that Michael would have wanted me to keep running and I went out there and didn’t really concentrate on anything.
“I just ran. Faith was important to the family then. My parents [William and Cislin, both pastors at the Redemption National Church of God] had been going through a lot and when I came up and started running, all my Mum could do was cry. Even now she don’t watch me run, she’ll only watch the replays. She won’t watch the Olympic final.”
Powell was in Miami when another piece of news reached him. On a wet night in Randall’s Island, New York, Usain Bolt, his friend and long-time training partner, had just run 9.72sec. Powell’s first reaction was disbelief, his second relief, the third was irritation. From being the fastest man on the planet, he was no longer the fastest man in his parish. Calm soon returned.
“When you’re the world record-holder you’re always expected to win,” he explains. “They all want to beat the world record-holder.” And now, his slow smile says, it’s Usain’s turn to feel the pressure.
Perhaps in an effort to lessen the hype, Bolt has yet to commit to running the 100m in Beijing, though Powell knows he will.
Gay, Bolt and Powell train on the same stretch of grass in the same dilapidated stadium and lift weights in the same gym. For a fraction less than 10sec, the world will still be hypnotised by the moment.
“People will watch, whatever happens,” says Powell. “They want to know who’s going to win. Track and field is the least watched sport in the world and the drugs issue is the reason why. If you’re running fast, you must be taking drugs. But all of us go through years and years to get here, you don’t want to be taking anything.”
It’s a simple philosophy and you hope it’s true. Is it possible, then, to run under 9.7sec? “It’s possible for me,” says Powell. “I don’t know about anyone else.”
9.74
The fastest 100m time Jamaica’s Asafa Powell has run. Set in Rieti, Italy in September 2007, it bettered his previous best by 0.03sec and was the sprinter’s second world record - until Usain Bolt improved it last month when he ran 9.72sec in New York
