Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THERE ARE some concerns over the fitness of 200m Junior World Record (JWR) holder Usain Bolt, as he gets ready to make his debut on the European Circuit next week.
Fitz Coleman, Bolt's coach at the IAAF High Performance Centre (HPC) in Kingston, told The Gleaner on Friday, hours before they departed the island, that the runner has responded "slowly" since missing the Jamaica International Invitational at the National Stadium last month with what was termed then as a "slight injury".
Coleman said there "were some niggling concerns" with Bolt's hamstring that was injured during training in early May and the two meets in the Czech Republic on Tuesday and Norway on Friday were to "test the waters".
PROFESSIONAL DEBUT
Bolt will make his professional debut at the Ziat Treta, an IAAF Golden Spike meet in Ostrava, Czech Republic on Tuesday and the prestigious Bergen Bislett Games in Norway on Friday, left the island on Friday night with Coleman, his local manager Norman Peart and 2002 World Junior Games 400m bronze medallist Jermaine Gonzales.
Gonzales is expected to take part in a couple of meets, one in Germany next week and another in Norway.
Coleman told The Gleaner that Bolt's participation in the meets was not about running fast times or winning but merely to see how well he had responded to treatment.
"The first thing after an athlete has an injury is to see if he or she can finish a race without flinching and to ensure the athlete compete without any setbacks, then take it from there," he said.
Bolt, whose JWR of 19.93 seconds set at the CARIFTA Games in Hamilton, Bermuda on April 11 is the fastest in the world over the past two years, has not competed in two months since breaking the record and will next compete on local soil at the National Senior Trials set for the National Stadium from June 25-27 where he will defend the 200m event.
The 17-year-old Bolt will lead the Jamaican team into the IAAF World Junior Championships in Italy next month but will miss next weekend's National Junior Trials at G.C. Foster College.
