YOUNG JAMAICAN sprinter Asafa Powell is on the rebound after a tough 2003 track season.
The national 100 metres champion Asafa Powell pulled-up at the Grand Prix final in Monaco just under two months ago in a sad climax to the season but that apparently has made him more resilient that ever.
"Training and hard training, trying to fight off injuries and get stronger for next season," Powell said of his regimen to The Gleaner.
"Basically, I am coming off an injury. I am working very hard because I had a lot of disappointment this season," the former Charlemont High student explained.
"I am working mostly on my hamstring. I am trying the strengthen my legs and my endurance because the last parts of my races were very bad this season," said Powell, who is coached locally by Stephen Francis.
"I am just hoping to come back next season and possibly win at the Olympics but right now it's just hard work, plus recuperating from my injury," he continued.
Powell, who never won a Boys Champs medal, identified injuries and the false start rule at the World Championships in Paris as the disappointments that got the better of him this season.
"I was very confident going into the World Championship semi-finals," Powell said. "After running the heats I knew I had a 95 per cent chance of winning the final and when I saw the time that won, I almost cried," he said.
He also made mention of the dropped baton mishap in the 4x100 relay final.
"I don't know what happened, all I know was the baton was left on the second leg. I was hoping to get a chance to show them what I would have done it in the 100m (Paris) but that did not happen. I think I showed them in Belgium," he said.
In Belgium, at the Memorial Van Damme/IAAF Grand Prix meet, Powell raced to a personal best (10.02) - three-hundredths of a second below his previous best to beat a top-class field which included Americans Justin Gatlin (10.09), Bernard Williams (10.10) and John Capel (10.13) along with Dwain Chambers of Great Britain (10.22) and Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago (10.26).
Other Grand Prix victories came at the Rieti meet in Italy (10.12) and the Malmo AI Galan Folksam event in Sweden (10.09, then PR).
Of all the Grand Prix races, the 20-year-old Powell rated the one in Belgium as his best.
"I don't know if I was too upset from Paris and the anger in me came through but it was very impressive," he said.
Anthony Foster
YOUNG JAMAICAN sprinter Asafa Powell is on the rebound after a tough 2003 track season.
The national 100 metres champion Asafa Powell pulled-up at the Grand Prix final in Monaco just under two months ago in a sad climax to the season but that apparently has made him more resilient that ever.
"Training and hard training, trying to fight off injuries and get stronger for next season," Powell said of his regimen to The Gleaner.
"Basically, I am coming off an injury. I am working very hard because I had a lot of disappointment this season," the former Charlemont High student explained.
"I am working mostly on my hamstring. I am trying the strengthen my legs and my endurance because the last parts of my races were very bad this season," said Powell, who is coached locally by Stephen Francis.
"I am just hoping to come back next season and possibly win at the Olympics but right now it's just hard work, plus recuperating from my injury," he continued.
Powell, who never won a Boys Champs medal, identified injuries and the false start rule at the World Championships in Paris as the disappointments that got the better of him this season.
"I was very confident going into the World Championship semi-finals," Powell said. "After running the heats I knew I had a 95 per cent chance of winning the final and when I saw the time that won, I almost cried," he said.He also made mention of the dropped baton mishap in the 4x100 relay final.
"I don't know what happened, all I know was the baton was left on the second leg. I was hoping to get a chance to show them what I would have done it in the 100m (Paris) but that did not happen. I think I showed them in Belgium," he said.
In Belgium, at the Memorial Van Damme/IAAF Grand Prix meet, Powell raced to a personal best (10.02) - three-hundredths of a second below his previous best to beat a top-class field which included Americans Justin Gatlin (10.09), Bernard Williams (10.10) and John Capel (10.13) along with Dwain Chambers of Great Britain (10.22) and Ato Boldon of Trinidad and Tobago (10.26).
Other Grand Prix victories came at the Rieti meet in Italy (10.12) and the Malmo AI Galan Folksam event in Sweden (10.09, then PR).
Of all the Grand Prix races, the 20-year-old Powell rated the one in Belgium as his best.
"I don't know if I was too upset from Paris and the anger in me came through but it was very impressive," he said.
- Anthony Foster
