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BY KAYON RAYNOR Senior Observer reporter sports@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, September 28, 2009
Having recorded 12-sub 10 times this season to establish the all-time record at 60, two-time World Championship 100-metre bronze medallist Asafa Powell has confessed that his injured left ankle bothered him up to his last race of the season.
"The ankle is coming on (but) it's not really there yet because I'm still feeling pain while running, so I was just playing tough to finish the season to come home and rest it before returning to training," Powell told the Observer on his return to Jamaica at the Norman Manley International Airport on Saturday.
Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell (centre), quarter-miler Shericka Williams (left) and hurdler Brigitte Foster-Hylton (right) are all smiles shortly after arriving at the Norman Manley International Airport from South Korea on Saturday. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)
The former world record holder along with world sprint hurdles gold medallist Brigitte Foster-Hylton and 400m silver medallist Shericka Williams returned home from South Korea, where they ended their 2009 season.
The 2006 Commonwealth Games 100m champion, who took six years to eclipse the old record for the most sub-10 times of 52, set by American Maurice Greene, conceded that he did not expect to break the record so soon.
"He took a number of years to do it and I did it in less, so I never thought I would get there so quick," Powell said.
The affable sprinter, who took six years between 2004 and 2009, produced 12 sub-10 races in 2009. Powell clocked 15 sub-10 times in 2008, eight in 2007, 12 in 2006, four in 2005 and nine in 2004.
By comparison, Greene, a three-time 100m world champion, took eight years between 1997 and 2004 to set the mark at 52.
Powell indicated that he was pleased with his achievements this season after missing nine weeks of training between April and June with an injured left ankle.
"I have to be thankful because actually I thought I wasn't even going to compete this year because of all the injuries and I managed to go to the World Championships and go to all these other competitions and manage to be competitive with Usain (Bolt) and Tyson (Gay), so I'm still satisfied," he said.
Powell, the former world record holder with 9.72, who is now the third fastest man in history behind triple Olympic and World Champion Bolt (9.58) and American Gay (9.69), says he will be working to be number one again in 2010.
"I just have to go out there with a killer instinct mind and compete to my best. I don't think I should really take these guys simple because they are running 9.5 and 9.6 and although I'm up there still in 9.7, I really need to push myself harder than before and just come back next year and don't play around," he said.
Powell noted that he will be using his hard-working MVP club-mate Foster-Hylton, who won the world 100m hurdle gold at the age of 33, as his inspiration.
"If I'm not planning to go 9.5, I'll have to settle for third place which I'm not ready to settle for... I'm tired of losing and I don't think you'll be seeing me losing much more... so I'm just going to work and I'm definitely going to get there," he said.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Having recorded 12-sub 10 times this season to establish the all-time record at 60, two-time World Championship 100-metre bronze medallist Asafa Powell has confessed that his injured left ankle bothered him up to his last race of the season.
"The ankle is coming on (but) it's not really there yet because I'm still feeling pain while running, so I was just playing tough to finish the season to come home and rest it before returning to training," Powell told the Observer on his return to Jamaica at the Norman Manley International Airport on Saturday.
Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell (centre), quarter-miler Shericka Williams (left) and hurdler Brigitte Foster-Hylton (right) are all smiles shortly after arriving at the Norman Manley International Airport from South Korea on Saturday. (Photo: Garfield Robinson) The former world record holder along with world sprint hurdles gold medallist Brigitte Foster-Hylton and 400m silver medallist Shericka Williams returned home from South Korea, where they ended their 2009 season.
The 2006 Commonwealth Games 100m champion, who took six years to eclipse the old record for the most sub-10 times of 52, set by American Maurice Greene, conceded that he did not expect to break the record so soon.
"He took a number of years to do it and I did it in less, so I never thought I would get there so quick," Powell said.
The affable sprinter, who took six years between 2004 and 2009, produced 12 sub-10 races in 2009. Powell clocked 15 sub-10 times in 2008, eight in 2007, 12 in 2006, four in 2005 and nine in 2004.
By comparison, Greene, a three-time 100m world champion, took eight years between 1997 and 2004 to set the mark at 52.
Powell indicated that he was pleased with his achievements this season after missing nine weeks of training between April and June with an injured left ankle.
"I have to be thankful because actually I thought I wasn't even going to compete this year because of all the injuries and I managed to go to the World Championships and go to all these other competitions and manage to be competitive with Usain (Bolt) and Tyson (Gay), so I'm still satisfied," he said.
Powell, the former world record holder with 9.72, who is now the third fastest man in history behind triple Olympic and World Champion Bolt (9.58) and American Gay (9.69), says he will be working to be number one again in 2010.
"I just have to go out there with a killer instinct mind and compete to my best. I don't think I should really take these guys simple because they are running 9.5 and 9.6 and although I'm up there still in 9.7, I really need to push myself harder than before and just come back next year and don't play around," he said.
Powell noted that he will be using his hard-working MVP club-mate Foster-Hylton, who won the world 100m hurdle gold at the age of 33, as his inspiration.
"If I'm not planning to go 9.5, I'll have to settle for third place which I'm not ready to settle for... I'm tired of losing and I don't think you'll be seeing me losing much more... so I'm just going to work and I'm definitely going to get there," he said.