For the Track & Field Fans, here is some news

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Walker battles hamstring in race to be Berlin ready

Published on: 29th May, 2009....245 views

Melaine Walker celebrates her 400mH success in Beijing | read this item

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Kingston - Olympics 400-metres hurdles champion, Melaine Walker, is in a race with time to be at full strength for the IAAF World Championships, which start in less than ten weeks in Berlin.

A week ago Walker admits to not being fully fit — describing her present condition as “probably 80 per cent.” She added, however, that “I’m getting there.”

The Jamaican Olympic champion and national recorder, at 52.64, accomplished when becoming the second Jamaican female champion in the 400m hurdles in Beijing last summer — said although “training is going well right now,” she was affected by the flu and a hamstring problem earlier.
“I had a slight problem with my hamstring, but I am getting better,” she said.

Despite being slightly behind in her training, Walker said she was not worried about the current situation and added that things will turn around once the season picks up.

“I am not worried, because knowing little from now, after the Jamaica trails,” she said.

“We might be going to our training base in Italy and at that point in time coach (Stephen Francis) always spend all the time with us and strengthen us in all the areas … and then by Berlin, everybody should be on top shape”.

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“Going into the World Champs, I am very confident and hoping to repeat (Beijing’s success) or at least to get a medal.”

After dominating a solid field to win the Olympic title last year, there were many with views that she must starts with some baggage to repeat in Berlin, but Walker dismissed those views, while stating she only hopes to “go out there and do my best.”

In two 400m outings this season, the first at the Melbourne Grand Prix in Australia, in March, Walker recorded 52.26 for third and then almost a second slower, at 53.23 at the UTech Classic in Kingston a month later.
In her lone 400m hurdles, at the Sydney Classic, also Australia, she ran 55.50 to win.

Walker said her below par season so far was a result of two problems.
“In most of the cases I was ill. I had the flu or my hamstring was not coping,” she continued. “Knowing the person I am, I opted to go out and do my best to keep my confidence up.

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Uncertainty surrounds Powell’s readiness for Berlin

Published on: 3rd June, 2009....190 views

Asafa Powell

The very fast man: Asafa Powell. | read this item

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Kingston - Former world 100-metre record holder, Asafa Powell, is struggling to be fit in time for the Jamaica’s national Championships and the World Championships.
Less than a month before Jamaica’s Championships – June 26-28 and the Berlin World Championships – August 15-23, there are increasing uncertainties surrounding the fitness of Powell.
Powell is nursing an ankle injury, which led him to below par performances at the Penn Relays – April 25 – and last weekend’s Reebok Grand Prix.
At Penn Relays he was clueless on the anchor leg for Jamaica while last weekend in New York, he finished a disappointed seventh in 10.10sec.
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Bruce James, president of Powell’s MVP Track Club, said the club is monitoring Powell’s fitness and will do what’s best for the athlete.
“It is difficult to measure his degree of fitness but he continues despite recovering from an ankle injury that he’s been struggling with for some time,” said James on local radio.
“The coaching staff has him on a programme that I expect will have him ready when he needs to be ready,” added James.
Powell is scheduled to compete in this Sunday’s Prefontaine Classic in Oregon.

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Gatlin: Bolt’s dominance could affect Powell’s ego

Published on: 13th May, 2009....510 views

Gatlin: Bolt's dominance could affect Powell's ego | read this item

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Former Olympic and world sprint double champion, American Justin Galtin, believes Usain Bolt’s dominance could affect Asafa Powell’s ego.
Bolt first ran 9.72sec to break Powell’s world record of 9.74 in New York last year, and lowered it to 9.69 at the Beijing.
"When you’ve been running the 100 for three years and one of your countrymen comes in there and says, I’m going to run the 100, and goes out there and breaks your record in almost two tries that’s going to do a lot to your ego," Gatlin said in an interview with Universal Sports.
Gatlin, who is serving a four-year suspension for using banned drugs in 2006, said Powell, who he once share the world record of 9.77 with in 2006, is the man under pressure.
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Gatlin also spoke about Powell’s lack of success on the big stage. Powell finished fifth at the 2004 Athens and last summer’s Beijing Olympics. At the 2007 World Championships, he finished third in the 100m.
"He’s digging a hole for himself because now he knows how the public feels about him," added the Universal Sports interview.
"Every time he steps up to a World Championships or an Olympics his mind is already thinking ‘I’ve got all of Jamaica on my back’ and now he’s thinking, ‘man, I’m not even the best in Jamaica anymore".

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Gay’s 19.58 run doesn’t scare us says Bolt’s coach

Published on: 5th June, 2009....8 views

Gay's 19.58 run doesn't scare us says Bolt's coach | read this item

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Kingston - Glen Mills, coach of triple Olympic Games gold medallist Usain Bolt, said they are not intimidated by last weekend’s stunning 200m performance by American Tyson Gay.
Gay, at last Saturday’s Reebok Grand Prix in New York, stunned the world with an electrifying 19.58seconds, the third fastest time ever only behind Bolt’s world record run of 19.30 and Michael Johnson’s 19.30 are faster.
But Mills said “I am not surprised (by Gay’s run), because he ran 19.62 already and that track is a very fast track.
“It (the run) doesn’t scare us, but we take everybody seriously”.
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Mills said he has a close talking relationship with Gay and they respect each other. “He told me he would be coming back this year and looking forward to some real competitive races with Usain.
“Tyson is a very good athlete,” he said, but pointed out that “Usain is just Usain, and when the time comes, he will be ready.”
Bolt, who ran 9.69 and 19.30, both world record times, to win the sprint double in Beijing last summer, is yet to run a 200m this season.
He, however, ran a world best 14.35 seconds in a 150m on the streets of Manchester last month.

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Callendar says training with Bolt is making a big difference

Published on: 5th June, 2009....28 views

Trinidad & Tobago's silver medal 4x100m team at the Olympics | read this item

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By Clayton Clarke for TrackAlerts
Email: claytonrclarke@yahoo.com
Kingston - Beijing’s Olympic sprint relay silver medallist, Emmanuel Callendar, said training alongside the triple Olympic champion and world record holder, Usain Bolt, has been the motivating factor to his career.
Callendar, who ran the third leg on Trinidad & Tobago’s 4×100m relay team in Beijing, said: "it is a great feeling" working along the fastest man in the world and the hard work Bolt puts in training has impressed him, especially in doing over distance.
Callendar recently set new personal best times of 10.16 and 20.40 seconds in 100 and 200m in Brazil last month.
He trains with Bolt’s Racers Track Club, which also included Daniel Bailey of Antigua and Barbuda who ran under 10 seconds for the first time(9.99). "I am learning a lot of things I did not know before," he said since he started working with coach Glen Mills.
Callendar feels he is benefiting from the experience of Bolt and Bailey as they have been competing longer than him.
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The 25-year-old athlete is looking forward at his country’s national championships, June 19 to 21 and competing at the upcoming World Championships in Berlin, Germany from August 12 to 23.
"I am going into the race without fear," he said of his aim for the Trinidad & Tobago Championships. He said Darrell Brown, Marc Burns and Richard Thompson, the Olympic silver medallist, are his main contender. "Right now coach have me working on my start, drive phase and biomechanics in order to win at the trials," he added while saying his main rivals will have the edge.
Callender, the 2008 Central American and Caribbean 200m champion reports that he has been working on improving his starts and drive phase with the intention of upsetting the form book and take the national sprint crow
At the Trinidad and Tobago Open Championships Callendar is expected to be up against the 2008 silver medallist the men’s 100m Richard Thompson, Olympic and two time World Champion finalist Marc Burns, and 2002 World Junior Champion and 2003 World Championships runner up Darryl Browne.
He is very confident that he can come away with the victory.

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Bolt turned down $150,000 for Reebok, not true says agent

Published on: 30th May, 2009....164 views

Bolt turned down $150,000 for Reebok, not true says agent | read this item

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Kingston - Usain Bolt’s management has denied reports that the star athlete has turned down US$150,000 to run at today’s Reebok Grand Prix in New York.
Reports reaching SportingEagle.com suggested that Bolt, who stunned the world in Beijing last summer by winning Olympics gold medals - 100m (9.69), 200 (19.30) and helped Jamaica to the 4×100m title (37.10), all in world record times, is high in demand, therefore his asking price was $250,000.
Organizers of the inaugural Festival of Excellence are reportedly paying Bolt a $250,000 appearance fee to compete in a track and field exhibition at University of Toronto’s Varsity Centre.
However, when contacted by email on Friday night, Ricky Simms, Bolt’s competition agent said: “There is no truth to this story”.
Simms, however, admitted Bolt had “many invitations to run this year.”
He said from these invitations, “coach Mills and I worked out a programme that would make the most of his opportunities and get him to the IAAF World T&F Championships in the best possible condition”.
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“We just decided to try some new meetings,” he added while pointing to the Manchester Street, which he deemed “very successful, both for Usain and the sport of T&F”.
“His next race is in Toronto, which is a new meeting with a lot of Jamaicans living there,” he added.
He said Bolt’s commitment for the Toronto meet has attracted a lot of interest, which they hope will help the meet to develop into one of the big meetings on the North American circuit.
Bolt, at last year’s Reebok Grand Prix, excited track & field fans with a breathtaking, then world record of 9.72 in just his fifth outing at that distance.
Simms said the door is not close on the Reebok Meet.
“We have a great relationship with the New York meeting and it is likely that he will run there in the future - probably next year,” said the England-based agent.

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Berlin organisers want Bolt on the street again

Published on: 8th June, 2009....17 views

Berlin organisers want Bolt on the street again | read this item

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By Gary Smith, World-Track
BERLIN — Organisers of the DKB-ISTAF Berlin Golden League meeting are hoping to lure the Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt to compete in another street race in the German capital in later this year.
Bolt stared in a 150-metres street race in Manchester earlier this year — running a world best time of 14.35-seconds — a performance that has excited ISTAF organiser Gerhard Janetzky, who wants to put the sprint marvel on the streets again in October.
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"I want Bolt in October," Janetzky, who noted that ISTAF did not have the funds to sign Bolt for Sunday’s Golden League opener, told Berlin newspaper B.Z.
"Then we have the next edition of the ‘Berlin runs’ event. It is my dream to have a street sprint with him like the one in Manchester," he added.
Janetzky will have a chance to get a closer look and work out a more official deal when the Olympic sprint double champion competes at the World Championships in that city in August.

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‘VCB’ believes present false start rule can be manipulated

Published on: 1st June, 2009....108 views

'VCB' believes present false start rule can be manipulated | read this item

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By Laurie Foster
E-Mail: islandsportingmodels@yahoo.com
New York - Speaking at this past weekend’s Reebok Grand Prix Press Conference in New York City, Jamaica’s 100m World Champion and back to back 200m Olympic Champion, Veronica Campbell-Brown, hinted that athletes can use the present false start rule to their unfair advantage.
The matter is up for discussion when the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) assembles for its pre-World Championships Congress in Berlin, this summer, and is expected to culminate in a proposed amendment.
In recent years, the competing athletes no longer, each, enjoy the luxury of one unpunished pre-gun jump or twitch. It is simply this - the first wrong move is charged to the entire field, and each transgressor, thereafter, is booted from the race. Is this real justice?
This writer has, for reasons thought to be axiomatic,never embraced the dictum “the good must suffer for the bad”, and, as such, the leaning is towards the cliché – “create a level playing field”. Add to this the fact that the existing rule came about in response to television interests claim that their precious costly air time was being ambushed by a plethora of false “gos”, the race start system having to be put on rewind each time that happens.
Another major contention, coming from the athletes, themselves, is that, in their midst, are those who use the current rule to what would be, in their view, an unfair advantage. Depending on several issues, having a poor start not the least of them, the challenged athlete can plan and execute early action, which now brings the field more in line with him or her – the objective to place a stricture on the blessing of one, known to have a quick reaction time.
window.google_render_ad();SportingEagle.com thinks that Campbell-Brown, summed up the scenario very well.
“I think that there are many instances where an athlete false starts. Some athletes false start just to get an edge. But some people false start because the way the start is implemented. It is not 100 percent the fault of the athlete when an athlete false starts”.
“I also understand the importance of television, and false starts are not good for people watching on television because it can become boring. It’s two-sided and it’s up to the federation to decide,” she said.
The IAAF will decide come August, and are expected to introduce the “no pardon” system as obtains on the USA Collegiate circuit – all athletes, “coming under gun” – One strike and you are out!. Considering ourselves champions of justice, that is how sportingeagle.com would want it to be “fair for one, fair for all”.
Considering ourselves champions of justice, that is how SportingEagle.com would want it to be “fair for one, fair for all”.

[Gamma]

it does not create a level playing field, my own opinion was that it was a time/tv scheduling issue.....

[Jangle]

By Gary Smith, World-Track

EUGENE, Oregon — Former world record holder Asafa Powell says he only gave enough effort to test himself during a 100-metres race at the Prefontaine Classic IAAF Grand Prix meeting on Sunday.

Powell, who is recovering well from an ankle injury he sustained earlier this season finished behind American Mike Rogers in 10.07 seconds, and he was encouraged by the performance.

"I was a lot more confident (in today’s race)," said Powell. "But I didn’t really try to push it."

Powell, known famously for his rocket starts and dynamic drive phase in the developing stages of his race, was caught looking around leading up to the finish, and he admits to just taking things easy.

"I came out of the blocks slow and pretty much just continue pretty slow towards to the end," the 26-year-old said, making note that this was his final race before he competes at the Jamaica Championships at the end of this month.

Although he has been slowed down for several weeks by the nagging ankle injury, the Olympic relay gold medallist does not believe he needs to do any drastic before the trials.

"I don’t think I need to work on anything but my ankle to get it right and pain free so that’s the aim right now.

"I am not worried. Base on how I ran today (Sunday), I am 80-percent. I feel like my normal self in my upper body, so I’m quite happy," he added.

Powell, the bronze medallist from the Osaka World Championships two-years-ago only needs to place in the top three to book his spot on the Jamaican team to the Berlin championships.

And based on current form, even with the injury he is nursing, the sprint ace is favoured to join world record holder Usain Bolt on the 100m team.

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Bolt/MJ in Toronto PICS
Wed Jun 10, 2009 19:34
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Arriving at the CN tower
And Accepting the Laureus Award

and recieving his award














Check out more pics here:

http://www.daylife.com/search/photos/1/grid?q=Usain+Bolt

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letsrun.com talks about Dexter Lee going pro
Wed Jun 10, 2009 14:57
69.73.220.150


A Closer Look At Some Young Sprint Sensations
A ton of Jamaican press went last week to the fact that Reebok took a chance on double junior sprint champ Dexter Lee by signing him to a pro contract. We certainly aren't fans of guys skipping the college circuit (or even those that go pro early) but understand that it will happen. While we are far from sprint experts, we're not sure why Reebok would sign Lee. Sure, he's the double world junior champ but his PR is only 10.31. The guy ran a 10.48 last week at Reebok. Does Reebok realize that 78 guys in college have run 10.47 or faster this year? Hell, 22 collegians have run faster than his 10.31 PR. Auburn's Marcus Rowland is less than a year older than Lee and he's run 10.13 this year. Mississippi State's Deangelo Cherry is 18 like Lee and has run 10.21. Eastern Illinois even has a freshman sprinter, Zye Boey, who has a better PR than Lee, as Boey has run 10.30 this year.

We know that companies like Nike, Reebok, etc. can be wrong a lot of times and still come out way ahead if they get one Usain Bolt locked up but we certainly don't think Lee is the guy we'd sign. To us, the most troubling thing is his lack of improvement. His PR in 2007 was 10.33. In 2008, he ran a wind-aided 10.32 and now he's run 10.31. So he's coming down .01 per year. So in 65 years, he'll be ready to break Bolt's record.

The shoe companies should hire us as their consultants. The guy we'd sign is Texas high schooler Prezel Hardy. The guy at the start of last week was just 16 years old (his birthday is 6/1/92 compared to Lee's 1/18/91). He is 500 days younger than Lee and he just ran a wind aided (wind was just 2.2 mps) 10.08 at the Texas State meet!!! Unbelievable.

And the best part about it? Look at his improvement. Last year he ran 10.95 wind legal/10.53wind aided and now 10.41 wind legal/10.08 wind aided.

But all in all, we'd say let the kids be kids.

Speaking of going pro early, Rend Lake junior college has produced another stud for the 2nd straight year. Last year the JUCO produced Kenyan Olympic 800 runner Boaz Lalang. This year, their 100/200 man Ryan Bailey, whom T&FN ranks in the top 10 in the 100 and 200, has gone pro early. The Oregon native has PRs of 10.05 and 20.45, both set on the same day (May 22nd) at the JUCO nationals. Bailey, who is 20 years old, ran 10.18 at Pre.