Athletics: Gay aiming to break 10 seconds at Crystal Palace
By Mike Rowbottom
Published: 02 August 2007
For a man whose exploits this season have established him as the fastest man in the world, Tyson Gay was looking rather down yesterday.
At least as quietly spoken as that other sporting Tyson, although on a different planet in terms of his personal demeanour, the American who would have had the world 100m record this season but for a stray gust of wind that ruled his time of 9.76sec invalid for record purposes was less than ebullient as he looked ahead to tomorrow’s Norwich Union London Grand Prix.
The inevitable question of whether he would essay another attempt at Asafa Powell’s legal mark of 9.77sec at Crystal Palace provoked a swift assertion that, although he was looking for the world record every time he runs, his prime task would be to check his form in his last scheduled race before the World Championships start in Osaka on 25 August.
Even though it is unlikely he will reach into world record territory, his 100m in south London will be crucial in enabling him to determine how well he has recovered from the knee injury which has troubled him ever since he won the US trials in June.
“The knee has been bothering me a little bit,” he said. "Mentally I haven’t been 100 per cent because my training hasn’t been going the way I wanted it to go. I haven’t been 100 per cent for three weeks.
“I put a lot of emphasis on the US trials, but now the World Championships are coming I have to do it over again. If I run under 10 seconds on Friday I will know I am on the right track.”
In the meantime Gay has been talking to his coach, Lance Brauman, who is currently serving a year’s jail sentence for embezzlement and mail fraud. “He told me that I will be OK, that I just have to be patient,” Gay said. “I ran 19.78sec for 200m in Lausanne last month even though I wasn’t feeling great. He felt that was a good sign.”
Gay admitted that neither he nor Powell had been in a hurry to run against each other. “He hasn’t wanted to run against me if he is not 100 per cent, and I feel the same,” he said.