”X-Man” versus Powell in Stockholm
Sunday 16 July 2006
Stockholm, Sweden - New sprint sensation Xavier “X-Man” Carter is confirmed for the DN Galan, IAAF Super Grand Prix, on Tuesday 25 July in Stockholm’s Olympic Stadium.
Carter who was the surprise winner in Lausanne in the 200 metres with 19.63 seconds, the second fastest time ever run will go against World 100m record holder Asafa Powell over the in the 100 metres.
“We have had our eyes on Xavier for several years thanks to his success at college and when he turned pro recently we wasted no time to invite him to DN Galan,” said meeting director Rajne Söderberg.
Carter’s time, 19.63, is the second best behind Michael Johnson’s 19.32 from the Olympic final in Atlanta 1996. This year Xavier has set personal bests with 10.09 in the 100 metres, 19.63 in the 200 metres and 44.53 in the 400 metres.
After his fantastic race in the 200 metres one must believe that he is capable of running faster in the 100 metres. Xavier Carter, 20, entered the history books this year by winning four events at the NCAA Championships. Last time this feat was achieved was by the legendary Jesse Owens in the 1930s.
On Friday night (14 July) in Rome he hung on for second place in the 400m behind World champion Jeremy Wariner’s staggeringly quick 43.62 win, after taking the race out hard from the gun. Carter’s time was 44.76.
how many of u guys thought he could run the 200 the way he did tho at lusanne? he hadnt even broken 20 yet.
i think he’ll get smoked by asafa but i know its in the back of ur mind that he might pull some crazy ass time out again…
I don’t particularly like the order of this competition schedule for X-man, though he’s obviously done it before, just not at this level.
At least he has a ten day break from the 400 and, ironically perhaps, his inability to put it all out there in the 400 might help him in this one. Success here is a sub 10 run.
I wonder if he is misled a bit from his NCAA successes thinking that because he is only racing 1 event he isn’t getting as taxed? I recall seeing him say he was expecting to do well in his 400m at Rome as he had never run one fresh (although he had just run 2nd fastest 200m a few days earlier).
I guess it’s better than doing the 100 m straight after the 200 m…
However, I remember a guy in the forum (I think it was “linarski”) was saying how some individuals are getting a “kick” out of a single (perhaps) lactic acid drill a few days before a flat-out sprint -although I think he was referring to how a 300 m may affect a 200 m race, which is different, I understand…
I guess, we’ll soon find out if/how it works for him!
Sorry for the misunderstanding! I was referring to the possibly positive effect his latest 400 m race may have on the coming 100 m one.
And the other point was that although not ideal and the races are too close together, I’d prefer this order of races rather than any other -considering that the rest days were not negotiable for him.
Would you prefer any other order under the circumstances? I think -in a sense- he’s lucky they are run this way…
Thanks!
Edit: perhaps a 100–>400–>200 m order would be better for the point I am trying to -unseccessfully- make here
i cant believe the guy is only 20yrs old??
there seems to me to be a lot more very top level guys running very fast times at a younger age! Assafa is like 22 or so?
What has happened to the 12yrs it takes to reach the pinnacle of success? Unless they started proper correct training from primary school, there is something more going on here.
What has caused a 12yr training cycle before wr class times are produced to what we are starting to see here? Or is the 12yr training cycle just an average. One guy does it in 4yrs, another does it in 20yrs?
