Don’t underestimate the mental toughness of someone who has managed to achieve his level of success despite losing two older brothers. If he was able to come back and attain his level of greatness despite those losses, I will simply not assume that he can’t overcome a bad race in a 100 m race. I don’t know about you but for me one of those events would require significantly greater mental toughness to overcome than the other.
Haven’t had a chance to post all weekend…but what a weekend…Firstly I for one am one of those who get pretty pissed off when people call Asafa a bottle job or choker. Bolt and Gay are mentally tougher than him in Majors. I feel sorry for this cat I really do…its like he can’t put it together when it really counts…it will be hard for him from now on as the level has been raised but if any one can test Bolt its him. It was only a few years ago we were saying that no one could match Asafa for finishing…so what does Tyson Gay do…he works on this…these cats can do the same and match Bolt…it can be done! Some observations made:
2004 Final - Asafa on the line sweating and nervous. You can always tell when he’s nervous because he doesn’t know where to look on the start line. He also made a nervous look to his left…2008 Final - No sweating but a nervous smile and once again he turned to the left maybe to catch a glimpse of Bolt to get a reassurance?
2008 Final - Bolt on the other hand was doing Drummond/Crawford type stuff to relax himself…he knew he had the wheels and just needed to relax…joking around enabled him to do this.
Execution of the race was POOR. It wasnt him at all…what annoys me the most is that all these cats in the final apart from Thompson and Dix he has raced on the circuit has has sacrificed them to the Gods of Mondo…ok he got a unconvincing win against Bolt dipping (which we all know is unlike him) but other than that he had a great pedigree than the others. It was all down to execution. No trademark reaction (in fairness to all competitors the hold was very long in these champs) no dominating 60m no Asafa finishing speed. He looked a shadow of his 9.77 self. I say 9.77 self because I’m still unconvinced about the 9.74…A little to convienient for my liking. The 9.77 in Athens no questions…that there was pure Asafa.
What ever is going on in the MVP camp with Asafa and co needs to be sorted before he is lost in translation.
Another observation I saw was in heat Asafa wore to the new Aerofly’s that he has put his name to…didnt look to hot IMO…for the 1/4 final he put back on the original and best - The Zoom Ja’s. He looked much better in this run.
Semi final not learning from the lesson learnt he again dons the snazzy Aeroflys and has an unconvincing win over Richard Thompson. There’s now way thay cat should be so close to him…ironically he was wearing the type of spike that Asafa made famous which earned him a silver medal.
Was Asafa forced to wear the new spikes for the most important 2 races of his life?
I agree. Everyone else on here wrote it off when a few of us mentioned it saying of the new shoe “it’s the same spike he has been wearing”…obviously not. Asafa has enough crap to worry about as it is.
if they don’t want to take any chances running him in the 200(maybe since groin issues) then maybe run him in some 100m races on tracks where their is a longer straight (gainesville track or san jose track). You know maybe tell him to come through 100m mark in 9.9-10.00 and keep on gunning it for 40m or so.
Check out ben johnson in 1986 on a san jose track. Once he passed 100m he kept on gunning it to around 140m before shutting down. Not sure if that was planned or if ben genuinely didn’t know where the line is. It’s race #3 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Qdgow-EeM
or else xavier carter and jeff demps in these videos continuing to gun it for another 20m or so after the finish.
10.15: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235/12682
10.17: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/235/12592
when usain bolt ran 9.72 in new york he seemed to have made it to the 120m mark on the other side of the track in 24 seconds. 100m(straight)+120m(curve)=220m. This would mean he basically ran about 230-235m in 24 seconds, using the arms forcefully for 100m and minimally for the last 130-135m.
Why not just do maximal 150m sprints in practice?
don’t know, maybe for the same reason that he doesn’t run very many 200m in competition. Really have no idea, maybe groin issues/fears. Am just a lowly observing fan.