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Return to the track
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Jamaica's top athletes swing into competition mode this weekend, ahead of this summer's 12th International Association of
Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Championships in Berlin, Germany.
Triple world record Olympic champion Usain Bolt will open his 2009 campaign by running the 400 metres at the Camperdown Classics on Saturday in Kingston, Jamaica. "I'll just go out there and perform at my best and my coach will tell me if I need to go out there and push or to just take it as training," Bolt told the BBC. "It depends on what he says we'll be going out there and work on, but training is going well so far," he added. Bolt has collected several awards - including the IAAF Athlete of the Year accolade - after becoming the first man to establish three world records in a single Olympics. The 22-year-old sprinter, who stands at six feet five inches tall, set China's 91,000-capacity Bird's Nest stadium on fire last August. He sped to 9.69 seconds to better his own 100m mark of 9.72 seconds to become the first Jamaican to win the blue ribbon event. He also shattered American Michael Johnson's 12-year-old 200m record of 19.32 seconds by stopping the clock at 19.30 seconds, and shared in the sprint relay victory of 37.10 seconds. Bolt started last season by clocking 46.94 seconds in the 400 metres at the Queens/Grace Jackson meet in Kingston. Despite his achievements over the last year, the Glen Mills-coached athlete has identified weaknesses in his technique. "Personally I know it's the first 30 (metres) of race (I need to correct) and just my transition, because the last 50 is the best part of my race, which I accelerate," Bolt said. Other champions Two weeks ago Olympic 400m hurdles winner Melaine Walker, 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser and former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell were among other Jamaican stars who made their seasonal debuts by competing at the Queens/Grace Jackson meet in Kingston. Fraser produced a lifetime best of 54.99 seconds in the 400m; Walker clocked 23.73 in the 200m, while Powell posted 47.75 in the 400m.
Powell, who anchored the world record 4x100m relay team to victory in Beijing, indicated that he was pleased with his early season preparation. "Last year this time I was really nursing injuries, but this year I'm healthy and a lot stronger," he said. Powell and his MVP teammates were scheduled to compete at the Milo Western Relays at the GC Foster College in St Catherine, Jamaica on Saturday. They travel to Australia later this month to compete in two meets: the Sydney Track Classic on February 28 and Australia's premier athletics meet in Melbourne on March 5. The 'Sydney Classic' is one of a select group of Area meetings at which athletes can acquire points to qualify for the IAAF/VTB Bank World Athletics Final, to be staged between September 12 and 13 in Thessaloniki, Greece. The World Athletics Tour Melbourne, meanwhile, is an IAAF Grand Prix status meet within the 25 meetings of 2009 IAAF World Athletics Tour. Olympic 200m champion Veronica Campbell-Brown, who resumed training last November, recently wrote in her IAAF diary that things have been going well with her coach, Lance Brauman. But unlike many of her Olympic team mates, the reigning 100m world champion is not sure when and where she will make her 2009 debut. "The decision has not been made as yet as to when I will open my outdoor season. "However, if I should guess, I think it may be some time towards the end of March or early April," Campbell-Brown said. |
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Tied up in TIEAs
