Sport

Powell looks to the future

By LEIGHTON LEVY, STAR Writer

Left: Asafa Powell - file. Right: Justin Gatlin of the U.S. - reuters

FOLLOWING A disappointing end to what had promised to be a phenomenal 2005 season, 100-metre world record holder Asafa Powell is focusing on the future. His immediate goals include getting his injured groin healed and preparing for the Commonwealth Games in Australia next March.

"I need to go back to the doctor to check if it is 100 per cent," he says of the injured groin. "It feels like it's healed but the problem right now is that it's really weak because I have not been able to do any strength work on it. It can be strengthened now because I can take a certain amount of pressure on it."

As it relates to preparing for the games in March 2006, Powell said he just needs to resume training.

"The Commonwealth Games is the biggest thing next year so I'll go out there and train and as hard as I normally do. But the first thing is to get back on track," he says.

Sat out in Helsinki

On August 7, this year, less than two months after he broke the world 100-metre record in Athens, Greece, Powell was forced to sit in the stands of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium and watch his biggest rival, American Justin Gatlin, win the 100-metre dash at the World Championships of Athletics.

Hampered by the groin tear that occurred in London about two weeks prior to the championships, Powell could only watch as his third attempt in as many years to win a major international medal disappeared as fast as the American could complete one of his loping strides. For the soon-to-be 23-year-old world record holder it was a frustrating time.

"It's a terrible feeling to sit down and watch from the stands when you know that you have the goods to deliver," he reveals to THE STAR.

Powell began the season with a spectacular 9.84 seconds at the National Stadium on May 14, and followed that up with times of 9.84 in Eugene, Oregon, 9.85 seconds in Ostrava and 9.77, the world record, in Athens, Greece. For the 22-year-Jamaican star athlete, the gold medal in Helsinki seemed a virtual lock, and then it all began to unravel.

Hurt his groin

Two weeks after he broke the record, Powell hurt his groin defending his national 100-metre title at the National Stadium and remained inactive until the London Grand Prix a few weeks later when after cruising through his heat, tore his groin muscle four strides into the final and collapsed on to the track. Justin Gatlin won the race in 9.89 seconds.

Powell puts his problems down to bad decisions.

"I made a few decisions that I shouldn't have made which turned out to be the wrong decisions," he says. "Like certain competitions like the national trials, I got hurt at the trials, and then I went to London and tore it again."

He explains that his decision to run in London after hurting his groin defending his title at the national championships in late June, was made because he was "eager to run; to go out there to see what I had, but after the heats when I ran 10.02 easily I should have backed out but who knew that it (the injury) would happen."

Powell's frustration was also evident when he spoke about people, Jamaicans, whom he said were of the belief that he was ducking Gatlin during the meets prior to the world championships.

"Why don't they go cheer for the U.S." he says of his detractors. "And don't be a wagonist, when I am running good they are on my back and when I am not running good, they start saying things about me. When Americans and other people are saying that it doesn't bother me but when Jamaicans are saying those things, it's not pretty."

He said he was surprised that Gatlin would suggest that he was ducking him prior to the World Championships.

"When I see him we talk and run a couple of jokes so it was kind of strange. I was shocked when I heard that he said I was ducking and hiding. When we are on the track it may seem as if we are at war but off the track we weren't really enemies."

As for the bad luck that seems to appear whenever he intends to compete for a major medal, Powell says that while it has not affected his confidence, it is beginning to annoy him.

"To know that it has happened three times in a row it's kind of nagging, I tend to think about it a lot but I have to think positive and know that what is mine I will get it one day," he says.