Ross happy to ride Asafa’s coat-tailsFont Size: Decrease Increase Print Page: Print
Jenny McAsey
| November 30, 2007
JOSH ROSS has seen far too much of sprint world record-holder Asafa Powell’s behind for his liking.
“Well, he has beaten me every time I have raced him so the experience hasn’t been that good,” Ross noted yesterday.
Nevertheless, the Australian 100m champion is relishing the prospect of testing himself against the Jamaican speed demon at the A Series meets in Sydney and Melbourne next February.
“It is awesome that Asafa Powell is coming here, it is really beneficial for me and all the other sprinters as well,” Ross said. “And for athletics in Australia, it should really help lift the profile.”
In a statement released by Athletics Australia yesterday, Powell said he was excited about returning to Melbourne where he won the Commonwealth Games 100m gold medal in 2006.
“My experiences at the Commonwealth Games were amazing,” Powell said. “I can really feel the support of the people of Australia. Nowhere outside of Jamaica have I felt so welcomed and supported by a crowd. The Australian fans are top notch.”
He will arrive with his coach Stephen Francis and training partners on February 9, and compete in Sydney on February 16 and Melbourne on February 21, as an important plank in his build-up to the Beijing Olympics.
In a strange way, Ross and Powell have something in common. Both failed to produce anywhere near their best when the prizes were up for grabs at the world championships in Osaka, Japan, three months ago.
Powell, the 100m world record-holder, choked in the sprint final, fading to third when he felt American rival Tyson Gay closing over the final 40 metres.
And Ross’s race was run much earlier than that. Down in the dumps from homesickness, he bombed out in the 100m quarter-final, finishing last in 10.42sec. That was more than a third of a second outside the personal best of 10.08sec he ran to win the national title in Brisbane in March. If Ross had re-produced that time in Osaka, he would have finished fifth in the final.
Since Osaka, Ross has re-organised his life. He has changed coaches twice, moved house, and is now based on the Central Coast with coach Paul Nancarrow.
AAAHHH THAT’S BETTER. BACK ON TRACK AT LAST
Ross says he is finally settled and his new training regime is geared to run fast at the Olympics in August.
But with Powell and his training partners, Michael Frater and Darrel Brown racing here, Ross could be pulled to swift times.
“You need people that are faster than you at the present time to bring the best out of yourself,” Ross said. “If there is no-one there, you run within yourself.”
Ross toyed with giving the sport away a few months ago, but says he has renewed desire.
“I am still hungry, I still want to be the best athlete I can become and I still have a long way to go to achieve that,” he said.
Powell’s decision to train and race in Australia came about because he wanted to replicate his 2006 season, when he raced in Melbourne in March and then broke the world record twice in Europe a few months later.
Powell’s view is in contrast with those of some Australian athletes, including 400m runner John Steffensen, that they can’t run a few races here in summer and then do well internationally later in the year. :eek:
Athletics Australia’s international athlete liaison manager, Maurie Plant, who secured Powell’s pending visit, pointed out that American athletes Brad Walker (pole vault) and Michelle Perry (100m hurdles) competed here last summer before going on to win gold in Osaka in August.
Poor Ross sounds like he has horrifc homesickness issues, or is that just a foil?
Nanny, do you feel confident that whatever phychological thing that was affecting Ross last year will be of no coincidence this year? Also, I read in a bulletin last year that Ross was contemplating competing in LJ as well. It sounds forgotten now, but was that the case or was it a ‘rumour’?
Asafa Powell will run in Australia early year.
Photo: Pat Scala
ASAFA Powell won’t be trying to break the world record in Australia, but he will be in shape, and that means outstanding performances, his agent said yesterday.
Powell will run in Sydney and Melbourne next February, duplicating the build-up to his 2006 outdoor season, which brought him the Commonwealth Games gold medal and led on to the greatest season in history by a 100 metres sprinter.
Paul Doyle, Powell’s agent, said the sprinter did not peak for the Commonwealth Games and would not be peaked for Australia next year. That would not stop him running fast, Doyle added.
[b]“Obviously, Asafa’s main goal for 2008 is the Olympic Games,” Doyle said from the US, “so he’s not going to peak for those meetings.”
Doyle said Powell “in any type of shape is always going to be threatening to go under 10 seconds”. “So I’m sure everyone will see outstanding performances, regardless of whether he’s in world-record shape or not.”[/b]
Powell is “very excited” to be coming back to Australia. “My experiences at the Commonwealth Games were amazing,” he said in a statement. “I can really feel the support of the people of Australia. Nowhere outside of Jamaica have I felt so welcomed and supported by a crowd.”
Powell was beaten by American runner Tyson Gay in the 100 metres at the world championships in Osaka this year and Doyle agreed the positive psychological impact of Powell’s last visit to Melbourne was a key factor in the decision for his coach Stephen Francis’ decision to bring his group here again.
“I’m sure that’s the motivation why his coach wanted to go back,” Doyle said, “because not just Asafa but the whole group had great years in 2006.”
Sherone Simpson, also in the Francis stable, won the Commonwealth 200 and ran the year’s fastest times in both the 100 and 200 in 2006.
The Powell camp did a lot of soul-searching after the defeat in Osaka. Doyle said the fact Powell had rebounded strongly enough to break his own world record a few weeks later in Rieti, Italy, had restored his confidence.
“On the day in Osaka, he was physically capable of winning,” Doyle said, “but he lacked a bit of confidence because he didn’t have the perfect preparation.”
Powell had a couple of minor injury setbacks, which caused him to miss several scheduled races, Doyle said. As a result, his confidence going into Osaka had not been “on a high.”
There was some talk of utilising a sports psychologist in the aftermath of the world championships, but Doyle played that possibility down.
After the world record, his fourth, Powell had renewed belief, he said. “Asafa realised after Rieti that he is physically capable of winning, that he is the world’s fastest man, and that he should be nothing but confident of winning at the major championships.”
Glad to see they’re moving away from the psychological explanation. Sounds like they see the pattern of his big runs and are now going to follow through.
last seasons issues that effected him are so far out of the mind now they are no longer an issue. i feel they were more physically then mental but 3 months on the road for training in Europe dont help matters much.
he will be racing… we have set training times for pre march of 1.90 / 2.90 / 3.80 FAT in order to go under 10 sec and judging by where we are at feel he willl be right on track for 6.60 through the 60m mark for these races
TREBLE, I WISH YOU HADN’T MADE ME AWARE OF THIS THREAD. I JUST WASTED A LOT OF MY TIME READING 7 PAGES OF UTTER RUBBISH, UNINFORMED AND OFF THE PACE. ALL THEY DO IS INSULT EVERYONE ELSE INCLUDING ONE-ANOTHER. IT’S REALLY SUCH A TOXIC ENVIRONMENT THEY MADE FOR THEMSELVES AT SPRINTZONE, JUST LIKE THE OLD SUB-10. AND THEY’RE VERY WELCOME TO IT. SAD…:rolleyes:
In fairness though, once you wade through the bickering and personal stuff, some of them did get the idea and argued that it DOES matter how many races people run in preparation (startling stuff there!!) and that a Long-to-Short plan has the drawback that it is much more dependant on meets to reach a peak. You can think what you want about Asafa, that fact is only athletic Luddites would argue about the importance of race preparation.
There are many HSI acolytes there. Can anyone imagine John Smith NOT planning out exactly how many races he felt were needed for an athlete to peak?
Beyond that, after seeing a clear history of how many races preceded previous records, would anyone NOT plan to arrange to be on that same page going forward??
We know for sure that money’s tight in the meets there so whatever he’s getting ,if anything, is not his normal amount. Clearly, he has another agenda for running there- getting ready for Beijing.
The local Oz federation might be offering an “in-kind” arrangement, such as paying Asafa’s group’s accommodation and transport (airfares, ground movements) and providing reduced and expert local training and medical, paramedical service options?
Years ago I remember Australia lured Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, Guillermo Vilas, Gerulaitis and guys at the very pinnacle of tennis by offering them a little all-exs paid holiday for a week or two on an island in the tropical north.
You wouldn’t know with some of the board members these big sporting federations have nowadays. I read Herb Elliott, who was on the Oz federation board, is now worth more than $30 million (in shares) from a boom mining company set up by the former president of the aths board. Those guys, or the present-day equivalent, may be helping out on the ground with significant visitors like the world’s fastest man et al.
this is a link to page 10 of a 17-page thread on the topic, Jerry, but on this page there is a further link to a set of charts presented in graph form in which Charlie offers a well organised record of facts and draws certain convincing conclusions as to the source of Asafa’s problems and some possible solutions to those problems.
There were some others threads, including one in which some newspaper articles based on interviews with Charlie were published on his thoughts about Asafa’s continuing inability to peak when it counts.
in fact, here is the link posted by Rupert to those graphs:
and here is the link to the thread initiated following those newspaper interviews with Charlie, also referencing another frequent flier on this board, the venerated PJ (coach of Africa 100m recordholder Olusoji Fasuba, 9.85):
Exactly. Rubbish is what it is with a small handful of sensible comments here and there. It appears the thread is riddled with pathetic personal battles that won’t allow for any sound debate to take place.
