"Andre Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter
DAEGU, South Korea:
Young Jamaican sprinting star, Yohan Blake, is giving himself every ounce of chance to claim the top prize in the highly anticipated men’s 100m final here at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, South Korea.
Blake, who has impressed all season - showing his intentions early with a wind-aided 9.80 secondclocking at the Jamaica International Invitational in May - believes it will all come down to which athlete better executes their race plan in the final on Sunday, when they face the starter.
“It will take great execution,” said Blake in reference to what he believes will be the deciding factor in a race that is expected to feature the defending Olympic and world champion, his training partner Usain Bolt, and former world record holder Asafa Powell.
“I definitely think that my chances are as good as anybody else’s in that race and, as I said, it’s going to come down to execution on the day and who runs the best race at that time,” Blake added while fielding questions at an event hosted by Adidas here in Daegu.
Adidas has been sponsoring Blake since 2009 and is also a sponsor of his Racers track and field club.
Meanwhile, Blake, the national junior record holder over 100m at 10.11, is also the sixth-fastest Jamaican of all time with his 9.89, only behind Usain Bolt (9.58), Asafa Powell (9.72), Nesta Carter (9.78), Steve Mullings (9.80) and Michael Frater (9.88).
Blake, who is also the second-fastest Jamaican over 200m at 19.78, following Bolt’s 19.19, says he plans to be aggressive throughout his races from the get-go and singled out his coach, Glen Mills, for the development he has shown in recent years.
“I plan to come out, be aggressive, try to make a smooth transition and we’ll see what happens. You never know what will happen on the day, but that’s my approach,” Blake offered.
The 2006 World Junior Championships 100m bronze medallist added: “(My) season has been good, the starting has been good, it has been great and I have to give all the credit to Glen Mills for that performance in May, when I ran the fastest time in the world at that time, for instance.”"
In my opinion, Blake will win the 100m at Daegu. I am really surprised at how none of the media stories have even mentioned him. They believe that with no Powell or Gay it is a foregone conclusion. Blake opened his season with a 9.80w, he was within 0.01 of Powell at the JAAA trials and beat Mullings. His last race leading into Daegu was a 9.95 -1.6 on a very cool evening on a non-Mondo track where he categorically beat Nesta Carter. Carter as well know ran Bolt to within 0.02seconds in Monaco.
[b]We all know that Bolt isn’t in his best shape, but we don’t know how he has come on over the past month or how his taper is set. It has to be said though, his performances this year are are lot further down on '08 and '09 than people are acknowledging. Let’s look at his lead up to the 2009 Berlin champs:
He had just come off 2008 with his 9.69, 19.30 and then hit winter training with a rumoured 18.9 200m training rep, then:
9.86 -0.2 Kingston 27/6/09
19.59 -0.9 Lausanne 7/7/09 (Atrocious conditions, whole field 0.5 seconds off season best)
9.79 -0.2 Paris 17/7/09 (Left at the start)
9.91 -1.7 London 24/7/09 (Demolished the whole field, Blake, Powell etc.)
This year he is:
9.91 0.6 Rome 26/5/11
9.91 -0.2 Ostrava 31/5/11
19.86 0.7 Oslo 9/6/11
20.03 -0.6 Paris 8/7/11 (Suffering from flu)
9.88 +1.0 Monaco 22/7/11
20.03 -1.2 Stockholm 29/7/11
There is no doubt that Bolt is the best we’ve ever seen, but he isn’t in shape. His lead into the championships has been poor by his standards. He gave a very confident press conference the other day in Daegu, but he also said that he was ‘ready and well prepared’ before this season began. I think his words are more to scare off the opposition.
Also, before the season began he told us how he has bulked up and he looks bigger. Does this indicate a change in his preparation. His preparation in 2008 and 2009 lead to 9.69, 19.30, 9.58 and 19.19, based on what has happened this season why should we believe that it will lead to sub 9.75 in Daegu?
I want to hear what everyone has to say. Am I a fool for thinking Blake has a shot?
[/b]