http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22838215-5001023,00.html
Powell coming to SydneyArticle from: Font size: Decrease Increase Email article: Email Print article: Print Submit comment: Submit comment By Mike Hurst
November 29, 2007 12:00am
HARD on the heels of world football’s glamour player David Beckham, the world’s fastest man Asafa Powell is also coming to Australia - to race in the Sydney Grand Prix this summer.
On the basis of pure athletic performance alone, the 100metres world record-holder has certainly already attained a higher level than Beckham and is a household name globally.
Powell has run four 100m world records but feels he must race in Australia early next year to give himself the best chance of winning Olympic gold in Beijing in August.
The Daily Telegraph made this precise observation in a story on October 4 outlining the reasons based on analysis of Powell’s last five seasons. Obviously his management now agrees.
Powell and the rest of the MVP training group - including last year’s world No.1 female 100m runner Sherone Simpson - will arrive on February 9 and be based in Melbourne.
Yet with all of his records notwithstanding, the preacher’s son has not really lived up to the name his parents gave him. Asafa means "rising to the occasion’’.
The gentle Jamaican smashed his own 100m world record with a time of 9.74sec this year but his brilliant run came a fortnight too late after he had been beaten into third at the Osaka world athletics championships.
In fact the analysis of Powell’s rollercoaster career, which was conducted by Ben Johnson’s coach Charlie Francis, showed that after the major championship in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007 Powell has run his fastest time of the year in his very next competition.
"It was not a case of Powell choking in the majors so much as a case of timing. If he can get in the number of races he needs by coming to Australia, he won’t end up short of competitions by the time he gets to Beijing,’’ Francis assessed.
Francis sent his analysis and graphs to Powell’s US track agent, Paul Doyle, for deliberation.
Determined not to let that happen again in an Olympic year, Powell’s coach Stephen "Franno’’ Francis (no relation) wants to try to duplicate their 2006 campaign which started with a series of races in Melbourne at the Commonwealth Games and ended with a pair of world record races for Powell who, like Simpson, enjoyed an undefeated season and the global No.1 ranking.
Perhaps because they raced early that year, Powell and Simpson avoided the leg injuries which plagued them this year when perhaps they went too deep into their longer, slower training runs which seems to have led to problems during their transition to faster track training.
It is expected Powell will race the 100m and possibly also a 4x100m relay at the Sydney Grand Prix at Homebush on Saturday, February 16.
Their next competition will be at the opening meet of the 2008 World Athletics Tour in Melbourne on February 21.
Coming with Powell will be two tually been more successful than him at the world championships. Fellow Jamaican Michael Frater and Trinidad’s Darrel Brown won 100m silver at the 2005 and 2003 world titles respectively.
Their presence stocks the Sydney Grand Prix 100m with the most decorated field to compete in this country since former world recordholder Maurice Greene won the Sydney Olympic title.
