This debate that Asafa is not doing well for himself does sound futile. Mo having to run at small meets to put food on the table, are you actually serious? That is an absolutely absurd statement. Mo has plenty of money & so does John Smith; you can be assured of that.
Is this just opinion, or do you have some market research to support this argument. I would think watching someone run 9.74 has an enormous public appeal.
Well, you just said it all. If Asafa isn’t getting 100K or even 60K or 30K per meet, why in the hell would such athlete risk an injury for such crap money knowing the the OG year is around the corrner?
I would understand if the pay was decent why Asafa took the risk. It is pointless to continue the argument. CF and many of us saw this injury (of course if it was not an act) coming. I would not allow my athlete (of Asafa’s status) to run last 2-3 meets that Asafa did UNLESS the pay was worth it. Knowing that meet organisers would not pay the amount I have in mind my athlete would not run it. Alternatively, my athlete wold run it but not @ 100% rather @70-80% just to make the organisers pull their hair.
Is he injured now? Yes he is. Was it worth it? You tell me.
Cheers.
While I personally like Asafa as much if not more than Mo it only takes a quick perusal of various messageboards catering to track fans to find out the general publics view of him.
The buzz word is choker. Most feel he is a choker and it pisses them off that he didn’t run the record in Osaka.
He hasn’t been doing it as long as Mo, doesn’t exude the warrior mentality that a Mo or Bailey or Lewis or either Johnson exuded.
He’s soft spoken… So all that adds up to not being as popular as Mo.
Another thing all those athletes above had in common… GOLD Medal AND World Record.
He gets that and it’s moot. He will most likely become the Goat. I hope he does.
When one person gets 6 figures in appearance fees and another person has never gotten it, then it is obvious.
Again you do not know the severity of the injury and now you are just playing the other side. If the money is good, he is greedy. If it isn’t good, he was dumb. Sorry, but that doesn’t pan out, especially if you have contracts to run in those meets before the WR and possibly before the WC even took place.
You would have them run it at 70-80% (hmm), okay that’s fine and I think most agree Asafa shouldn’t have gone for a WR, but you can’t make the statements you are making about him entering a very low key 200m comp near the end of the season to make money.
The food on the table is an exaggeration, but these athletes are not living extravagant lifestyles by any means. Few even approach $1mill/year before taxes at ANY point in their career.
Its so nice to say oooo I knew this was going to happen, how dumb.
Did you know he was going to break the world record just before the meet so that you didnt sign the contract to run?
Did you know there were going to be shit conditions there?
If he would have run 19.5 everyone would have said they knew that too. Granted Charlie did warn multiple times about the risk of injury here.
But come on, you, as an individual pr at the end of a season, you dont go and try to find a couple more meets to run to see what you can do? I know thats not how it worked with Asafa, but I know the average person here would do that.
Shutting it down, he has a race, he just broke the world record when no one expected him to, no one on here was even talking about him running that day. Your telling me your not going to run a 200 and make whatever $50,000 lets say.
What did you want Curt Schilling to shut it down in the playoffs with the bloody sock.
Brett Favre is doing great now and hes real old chances are he’ll get injured, I think he should shut it down.
Everyone criticizing Asafa’s team, I think the 4 fastest times speak for themselves. I dont see anyone else on here coaching an athlete to that level right now. If he shut it down when he rightfully should have we wouldnt have a 9.74 right now.
My main concern was the race in Belgium after the WR. I would NOT have entered him there in the 100m. That said, I would not have hesitated to have entered him in a low key 200 in Japan as long as he knew to take it easy. The odds clearly favoured better weather there than in Europe by then. Weather conditions can only be known in advance for sure when running indoors!
As far as I remember, the weather was fine in Belgium. Or do you have another reason ?
grtz
It was far too close to Rieti with a tough field and usually unpredictable weather at that time of year. Again, you have to go with the odds. Hindsite is 20/20.
But it is also quite possible that the cumulative effects of the Brussels 100 coming so soon after the WR in Rieti, then backed up with a PB 200 across in Asia in Shanghai would have contributed to the injury in Yokohama.
In any case, he really didn’t “need” to attack the Yokohama 200 through the bend with the aforementioned in mind (small picture) and next year’s major (big picture) in mind. Or is it possible that nobody was using their mind? :rolleyes:
Maybe Safa is just too dumb:eek: to be self-disciplined enough to follow instructions. That’s a real consideration, especially after his comments in Rieti where he was quoted as saying he would henceforth listen to his coach.
Absolutely. Not just quite possible but more than likely! Not really a question of being dumb, rather inexperience over 200 and the lack of feel for the sub maximal pace adequate for an ok but not great result.
He mostly needed to keep an eye on the rest of the field and just follow them off the corner. Often, in his position, the others are watching HIM and trying to follow his pace while being relaxed, giving him the chance to lull them into a slow time for an easy race. (they only figure it out after the race is done and they see their time)
Maybe Safa is just too dumb to be self-disciplined enough to follow instructions. That’s a real consideration, especially after his comments in Rieti where he was quoted as saying he would henceforth listen to his coach.
Agree whole heartedly.
I dont know if ya’ll remember when Marion Jones was the deal, but she had raced in 67 races that year in 16 different countries. But maybe they could have left well enough alone but iguess they were trying to make up for him not racing early in the year due to injury.
I didn’t know she ran 10.48?
Seriously, I think CF has been talking about the implications of scheduling for any athlete after they race their lifetime best, after they take their physiology to somewhere uncharted. So Marion did run often (what year did she run those 67 races?) but other than in 1998 World Cup when she hit that 10.6 at J’burg with some altitude (witnessed that run from the shelter of an open hospitality area out of the freezing wind), she never looked like running a world record which of course is what Asafa has done. And WR would have to shake up your nervous system and god knows what else part of your genetics. So Marion really is a different scenario and, as she has now confirmed, she was on “support” hence perhaps her ability to recover sufficiently to run so often.