Mills: Bolt has not peaked as yet
… Coach eyes incredible times in next two years
BY KAYON RAYNOR, Senior staff reporter raynork@jamaicaobserver.com
Monday, September 14, 2009
DESPITE dominating world sprinting for a second consecutive year, establishing new world records of 9.58 and 19.19 seconds to win the 100m and 200m titles at the World Championships in Berlin, Germany, Usain Bolt’s coach Glen Mills says the Jamaican will go even faster in the next two years.
Thessaloniki, Greece - Usain Bolt of Jamaica wins the men’s 200 metres during the IAAF World Athletics Final at Kaftanzoglio Stadium yesterday. (Photo: AP)
According to Mills, who’s been coaching Bolt since 2004, the 23-year-old sprinter will definitely improve both world records once he gets stronger and further sorts out his technical flaws.
“I’m still not satisfied that he has reached perfection in those areas so we’re still going to be working on the reaction time and the drive phase,” Mills told the Observer in an exclusive interview on Saturday.
“I’m willing to take a pat on the shoulder because when I started last year with the 100m thinking and looking at his height and his co-ordination… I thought we had a mountain to climb, but we have spent hours studying what he does on tapes and films and looking at what I would want him to execute and what I think are the best body angles and so on, and so far we’re making the right decisions and I still think that we can do a lot more in that area, but what we need to do is to get him stronger,” added Mills, who guided Bolt to the 100m world record (9.72secs) within months of first contesting the 100m.
“I think we have a lot more that we can do in-terms of the strength aspect of it and this is an area that is slightly behind in his development. I still think that his physical strength, especially for his size, needs to go up several notches, maybe another 20 per cent, and I think when we get there we would have reached where we want to be,” the veteran coach posited.
Bolt, who ended his season at the World Athletics Final in Thessanloniki, Greece, yesterday by clocking 19.68secs, his fourth sub-20 200m of the season, is scheduled to return to Jamaica today after two months in Europe. His other sub-20 times this year were 19.19 in Berlin, 19.57 in Bruxelles and 19.59 in Lausanne.
And just how fast does coach Mills believe Bolt will be able to run the 200m within the next two seasons?
"I’ll tell you straight up based on what he has done in terms of his speed, endurance, the ability to run the 300m even in training at low 31 seconds by himself after a hard days work etc.
“It’s clear indication that if he’s really fresh, he’ll go under 19 seconds, there’s no doubt about that.” he reasoned.
Bolt shaved 0.11 off his previous world record of 19.30 in Berlin in his eighth race of the meet.
As for the 100m, Mills thinks Bolt could take that record below 9.50, given the right conditions.
"I don’t like these predictions, but based on what I think, in the next two years he’s going to peak, and I think when that happens, he’ll probably be in the 9.40s or low 9.50s.
“If he ever gets one of these legal winds of 2.0 metres per second or even 1.9 or 1.8 behind him, then God knows what time that will drive him to,” Mills reasoned, noting that all Bolt’s world records have been achieved with a very small percentages of wind and some against the wind.
Bolt recorded six legal sub-10 seconds 100m races this season, despite losing a few weeks of training due to a car accident at the end of April.