The “18th race” count could of course be distorted/shortened if Franno whacked a few more quality time trial efforts into his pre-comp phase. We have all seen the video link on this board showing Asafa hitting 300m in 31.0 and spliting 200m in 20.2. Surely that counts as one “race”.
Under the thread: “Analyse This” we can also see two pix of Asafa rocking side to side in the latter stages of his Oslo 100m. There is still something odd going on at ground contact. I have not seen a quality photo of him executing triple extension to anything like the extent routinely displayed by his nemesis Bolt.
Instead, and I hesitate to comment because I am not close to the action these days, the pix of Asafa suggest to me that he is still breaking contact prematurely - perhaps in a bid to lift his knees.
If he is lifting his knees, it is tantamount to creating a reverse cycle, the opposite motor pattern to what I would suggest was the kind of downward impulse likely to produce quality of contact resulting in vertical thrust and therein a longer stride during the deceleration phase of, say, the last 30 metres of 100m race.
I have formed the view that to a large extent the knee lift should be a consequence of vertical impulse downward into the floor which lifts the torso high enough to execute clean recovery mechanics. Those recovery mechanics morph into the “step-over” action which results in the thigh being presented frontside and parallel to the floor.