Damn I cant wait to see the graphs. The suspense is killing me. Charlie do you think that asafa has hit the level were running a 2 of the fastest races ever will not phase him, or is he really just a human after all and need to rest? It seems like he can go below 9.85 at will.
I don’t think they’re ploughing fields too much. Asafa ran 9.74 and Frater ran 10.03 tying his PB in +0.0.
Sorry for the late response, but…
He is a poor “round” runner in big match-ups
I actually wonder how much of it is Stephen Francis’s fault and how much lies with Asafa? Look at these comments
[i]“That’s what happens when I start to listen to the coach,” said Powell, who later won the Rieti final in 9.78.
“In Osaka, I was too tense,” Powell said.
"I thought too much about my race and the time I was hoping to achieve. On the other hand I was very relaxed in coming here (Rieti). That means I could run 9.68.
“After the world championships, where I made several mistakes, I worked with my coach so that I could regain my best form. Now I’m back.”
“I made some mistakes in Osaka (World Champs) but today I competed as I normally should do.”
“I was nervous in Osaka because I did not compete much this season (before the champs). I forgot how I should have run in the last 40m of a race.
“I will not say today (World record) was a revenge after (the disappointment of) Osaka. There the expectations were too high. I thought too much about the World record, but I have have done a lot of work in the last two weeks (since the Osaka 100m). I learnt again to run from the start and to be more relaxed.”
“I’ve been with my coach and working hard to get back to normal,” Powell said on Sunday. “The last 40 metres were very strong. I executed it and did what I came to do today.”
[/i]
I wonder if this not listening was also a factor in the lack of races and way he runs his heats 
oFCOURSE i UNDERSTAND THE AMERICAN COLLEGIATE SYSTEM, MICHAEL JOHNSON BANGS ONB ABOUT IT ON THE BBC AND I’VE FOLLOWED THE SPORT A LONG TIME.
All you have done is point out why a lot of collegiate athletes don’t make a good transition to Europe, don’t think I don’t understand why. Obviously there is a reason why some find it hard to make a transition to european schedules. All you have done is merely back up my point that it is not so easy to make a transition to europe. (and therefor, that is why a lot haven’t made a great transition despite theit obvious talent.) I just hope that doen’t happen to Walter Dix.
Me explaining something, followed by you pointing out the reasons WHY, does not dimminish my point whatso-ever.
Way to go.
Davan might read up on a few guys named Wariner, Spearmon, Gay, X… Wariner ONLY won NCAAs in 2004 and went on to with the Olympic Gold. Spearmon and Gay ran NCAAs in 2005 and went on to race all summer in Europe, with Spearmon winning a WC medal in the 200 and Gay finishing fourth, and Gay running his 100m PB (at the time) in the exact same place where Powell just lowered the WR. X, of course, had his individual triple in the NCAAs, then went to run his breakout 200 in Lausanne.
I’m not saying the NCAA schedule is exactly optimal (but it’s a lot easier for a sprinter than a distance guy), but competing well in Europe following the D1 competition scene has indeed been done many times.
Wariner was far and away the best in the world. Spearmon lost to Gatlin in a 20.+ time. How about Gay who got 4th? Both of them ran times that should have placed better. X-Man also had almost no pre-season and ran some mediocre 100s in Europe.
My best response to that from personal experience is going back to Ben in Helsinki, where he got a terrible start in the semi and didn’t make the final. Don Quarrie spoke to him after and asked him why the shitty start when he’d been consistantly the best starter since 1981. Ben said that he knew his finish was not that great yet and there was a headwind and felt he needed “something special” (as I’ve always said, when you try for something special, God help you).
In later years, Bens start was never an issue again because, in fact, he didn’t need it, as you could see from the Zurich 1986 video.
I think Asafa was feeling less strong than at his best and tried to compensate, which simply can’t be done and makes things worse. If he had been physically optimal, would he have had the same reaction?
He is ready now, but too late. Really, he wasn’t far off, but he was off.
It’s what everyone who has ever competed has come to discover for themselves: if you’re confident, then you can relax. You still feel “stress” but not “distress”.
When you are at ease, everything works better - faster, from the blocks out.
So it’s most likely primarily an issue of the time-line for AP. When you know you’re on schedule, you’re on your game.
For Stephen Francis, it’s a case of backtracking from the peak (9.74 or whatever he may yet run! :eek: ) to the start of his training year and then, as Charlie has stated on a few occasions, he needs to regulate the phases.
BUt he probably needs to look at the type of training Asafa was doing that got him hurt in the first place - and whether that was because he was pushing for speed too soon after working at the longer, slower end of performance - whether there was some sort of neural confusion even in the mix of work and the compression of their timetable due to race commitments perhaps.
In all probability it was the injury (knees, groin ?) which delayed his progress and caused Asafa to miss the peak at Osaka.
But nobody in this sport knows everything and I’m sure neither of the Coach Francis’s would disgree with that, so Stephen will no doubt (bloody hope so anyway) learn from this misadventure because for sure he was maybe only six races, a couple of kilos and a 10-day taper phase shy of a gold medal effort in Osaka based on what he now knows, following that magnificent double dash in Rieti.
KK,
I personally agree with the point of view CF and you presented here but still I need to see AP perform at his best with decent competition next to him. I wonder if Gay was at his peak in this little Italian town and if he had competed in the same race would AP have run WR?
AP’s lack of producing the best race when it matters can not be yet another coincidence. OG 04, WC 05, WC 07, well that’s three in a row. Even CG 06 produced another ordinary run.
I hope AP will overcome this and come back to win a major title. Finally, if both of them run 100m this weekend and AP wins convincingly then I will admit Osaka was just a glitch.
Other than that, I can not wait to see him running under 9.7.
Another interesting thing ot think of. For the most part, Ben, who had a similar race pattern from the front, never saw anyone in a race he ran seriously for years because he was always well in front. the first time he actually saw anyone was on the giant screen in Rome when he looked up at 90 meters.
If Tyson equalld his own PB, he’d be two meters behind till arond 80 then one meter back at 100. too far back for Asafa to see him at all. Of course, we have to consider the possibility of Tyson having a PB as well, but it’s less likely over the 100 because he’d already hit his peak in Osaka, ran more races, and would, therefore, need more recovery time to get back to that level or beyond.
Why would Asafa run Brussels other than the potential magic times? Didn’t he run a WR in years past then try to run again in about 7 days and blow a groin?
If you need ~10 days to recover from a WR, you only need 5 days to recover from 2 WR quality runs?
On a related note. From the memorial van damme website:
Free beer for each new world record
Jupiler Blue offers every single spectator of the crowd of 47000 a free Jupiler Blue should a world record be broken at the Memorial Van Damme on 14 September 2007.
As soon as a world record has been broken the audience can collect their free Jupiler Blue at the bars.
Read higher up. i think he fears manipulation in the 100 if he’s not there. If he is, presumedly Tyson will run the 200 as there isn’t time to set up decent money for a rematch.
Difficult situation. Normally, you’d just stay out. As an alternative, he could basically guard a place- and then pull out at the last second before the race could be changed around from a 200 to a 100 for Tyson. Who knows what will happen.
Charlie, what is your opinion on Asafa’s ability to handle high-intensity work? By this I mean that Asafa has no problem running a couple races at 100%, but we’ve seen in 3 major championships now, where Asafa looked great in the heats, but in the final he fails to deliver on expectations. The quality of his running drops slightly after the 2nd or 3rd race. Could this be an indication of poor tolerance to HI work? I am curious to know what kind of volumes Asafa is exposed to in his training. Perhaps there is a deficiency in this area of his training, in that his work capacity is not being expanded?
In response to the Brussels meet, is there implication that the meet organizers were cheating for the athletes?
[QUOTE=Sevastocrator]KK,
AP’s lack of producing the best race when it matters can not be yet another coincidence. OG 04, WC 05, WC 07, well that’s three in a row. Even CG 06 produced another ordinary run.
[QUOTE]
That’s not strictly accurate. In 2004 he ran 9.94which was only 3 hundreths off his then pb. I think he was just beaten by other better / inspired athletes on the day. In 2005 he was injured and didn’t compete. At the CWG he did only what was necessary to win the title. Only his performance in Osaka could be called a ‘choke’.
I wanted to comment on certain individuals who are devaluing this (and other) performances due to wind speeds. I assume that a wind speed reading is the highest speed recorded throughout the 10s period between start and finish. IMO it is unlikely that this speed will be consistant and so ‘normalising’ times should be taken with a large pinch of salt… Certainly there should be no question now that Asafa is the fastest in history.
Wind gauges take the average wind over 5 or 10 seconds. They are far from total accuracy but definitely give good insight to the wind conditions. If wind isn’t a huge factor then I’m Oba 9.69 4-life.
Tyson won’t come to belgium
Hi members
We’ve prepared a download for Asafa’s times you will find useful.
Find it here.
http://www.charliefrancis.com/downloads/asafa.zip
Enjoy!
Rupert
CharlieFrancis.com
This is good news for asafa, so new he should either run a 200 there or get out too IMO.