MONACO, CMC:
THE INTERNATIONAL Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has given a glowing report on Usain Bolt describing the Jamaican marvel as the "future of world 200-metre running" in its web-site review of the 2003 track and field season.
In its sprint review, renowned track and field statisticians, Lennart Julin (Sweden) and Mirko Jalava (Finland), writing for the IAAF web-site said:
"The future of World 200m running is Usain Bolt".
The report noted that the World Junior (Under-20) and World Youth (Under-18) 200-metre champion collected "six winning sub-20.50 meets" topped by an all-time world junior best 20.13 at the Pan American Junior championships in Barbados.
The report praised Bolt and his handlers saying they "wisely decided not to overdo it" at his tender age and refrained from trying to add a senior World Championships medal to the gold he collected at the World Youth championships.
Bolt, who turned 17 in August, notched his second consecutive IAAF Rising Star Award in September at the International Athletic Foundation (IAF) Gala.
His Caribbean colleagues, Kim Collins (St. Kitts and Nevis), Trinidad and Tobago's Darrell Brown, and Asafa Powell (Jamaica) figured in the 100-metre review.
Collins won the World Championship gold in a year that the competition was intense and the IAAF review noted that there was no great margin separating the top performers.
"This was emphatically illustrated by the World Championships final in Paris where the top-four led by Kim Collins finished within 0.01, and the top-six within 0.06."
The reported also listed Trinidad and Tobago's Brown, silver medallist at the Paris World Championship, and rising star Powell, who stunned his rivals to win the Golden League 100 metres in Brussels, among "some very exciting prospects for the future".
