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Shock, disbelief fill Powell household
BY DANIA BOGLE Observer staff reporter bogled@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, August 27, 2007
THE drone of the SDMO Genesis 3500 generator from the one car garage of the Powell residence in Orange Field Village, Ewarton, was the only sound to be heard as the Observer's motor vehicle pulled up in front of the house Sunday morning, half-an-hour before 100m world record holder Asafa Powell was set to run in the much-anticipated men's 100m final at the 11th IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
The distinct hum of that same generator was the only sound that could be heard following the race, as silence descended upon the small livingroom when Powell was beaten into third position as American Tyson Gay pulled away to victory ahead of The Bahamas' Derrick Atkins.
Asafa Powell's brother Nigel (right), and family friend Dwight look on in disbelief as the athlete is beaten into third by American Tyson Gay in the men's 100m final at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan, yesterday. (Photos: Garfield Robinson)
"Oh man!" Dwight, the family friend who had come over to watch the race, interjected time and again.
The other persons in the living room, Asafa's brother Nigel, nephew Jermaine, and friend Jimmy, who had been a mixture of laughter and irreverence just before they found humour in the story of the false start in the men's 5000m, remained speechless in a sort of surprised silence.
Nigel, who, when this reporter expressed a touch of nerves ahead of the race, said "Mi madda up deh (upstairs) a dead now", left the room. He had earlier told the Observer that their mother Cislin, was always nervous before Asafa had a big race and prefers to watch in the privacy of her bedroom.
His father William, who calmly sat reading the Sunday Observer on the balcony minutes before the race, said afterwards that Asafa was not himself yesterday.
"That is not 'Safa'," he said. "To me something wrong, he wasn't free and he can do better than that, but that's how it goes with the rounds and he will come again and when he comes home we will find out what happened because a not 'Safa' that."
"We're not disappointed because we know that man come and man go. He will not continue being champion at all times, when it is his time, it is his time," he added philosophically.
Cislin, shared that nerves had precipitated a need to use the bathroom before the race and that she in fact doesn't watch the races live, but waits for the replays.
"I was really looking for him to take home the gold, but it doesn't happen when you are looking for it... when you are not looking for it is when it happens and I am just glad that he reached this far and did not get an injury.
"I believe his injury is acting up, that it was a part of it because he has beaten that guy (Gay) five times already," she went on.
Nigel, who was so candid and open prior to the race, told us afterwards that he preferred not to speak anymore.
There is still no electricity in Orange Field Village a week after the passage of Hurricane Dean, and so at just after 8:30 am with the streets virtually empty, our white station wagon left the community in the same relative obscurity in which we had arrived.
Shock, disbelief fill Powell household
BY DANIA BOGLE Observer staff reporter bogled@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, August 27, 2007
THE drone of the SDMO Genesis 3500 generator from the one car garage of the Powell residence in Orange Field Village, Ewarton, was the only sound to be heard as the Observer's motor vehicle pulled up in front of the house Sunday morning, half-an-hour before 100m world record holder Asafa Powell was set to run in the much-anticipated men's 100m final at the 11th IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
The distinct hum of that same generator was the only sound that could be heard following the race, as silence descended upon the small livingroom when Powell was beaten into third position as American Tyson Gay pulled away to victory ahead of The Bahamas' Derrick Atkins.
Asafa Powell's brother Nigel (right), and family friend Dwight look on in disbelief as the athlete is beaten into third by American Tyson Gay in the men's 100m final at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan, yesterday. (Photos: Garfield Robinson) "Oh man!" Dwight, the family friend who had come over to watch the race, interjected time and again.
The other persons in the living room, Asafa's brother Nigel, nephew Jermaine, and friend Jimmy, who had been a mixture of laughter and irreverence just before they found humour in the story of the false start in the men's 5000m, remained speechless in a sort of surprised silence.
Nigel, who, when this reporter expressed a touch of nerves ahead of the race, said "Mi madda up deh (upstairs) a dead now", left the room. He had earlier told the Observer that their mother Cislin, was always nervous before Asafa had a big race and prefers to watch in the privacy of her bedroom.
His father William, who calmly sat reading the Sunday Observer on the balcony minutes before the race, said afterwards that Asafa was not himself yesterday.
"That is not 'Safa'," he said. "To me something wrong, he wasn't free and he can do better than that, but that's how it goes with the rounds and he will come again and when he comes home we will find out what happened because a not 'Safa' that."
"We're not disappointed because we know that man come and man go. He will not continue being champion at all times, when it is his time, it is his time," he added philosophically.
Cislin, shared that nerves had precipitated a need to use the bathroom before the race and that she in fact doesn't watch the races live, but waits for the replays.
"I was really looking for him to take home the gold, but it doesn't happen when you are looking for it... when you are not looking for it is when it happens and I am just glad that he reached this far and did not get an injury.
"I believe his injury is acting up, that it was a part of it because he has beaten that guy (Gay) five times already," she went on.
Nigel, who was so candid and open prior to the race, told us afterwards that he preferred not to speak anymore.
There is still no electricity in Orange Field Village a week after the passage of Hurricane Dean, and so at just after 8:30 am with the streets virtually empty, our white station wagon left the community in the same relative obscurity in which we had arrived.
Shock, disbelief fill Powell household
Asafa Powell (right) finishes third behind Tyson Gay in the 100m final 
606: DEBATE 
Paul Marin -19 is one thing, 20 is a whole other matter. It gets even worse if they win the UCL. *groan*. 
05/18/2011.MU fans naah cough, but all a unuh a vomit?-Lazie 1/11/2015
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