Powell to open season in Australia.
December 3rd 2007 13:21
The 25-year-old Jamaican will race in the Sydney Athletics Grand Prix on 16th of February, and at the IAAF World Athletics Tour meet in Melbourne on the 21st of February.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph last month Francis talked about the benefits that Powell would receive by starting out on the road to Beijing early.
”If he gets five to seven races in the February-March period, as he did at that time last year at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, it would lead to a shorter next build-up which would be better for him.”
“With an Australian competition period under his belt, Powell has a greater margin of safety if there is any sort of injury. He can get in the races he needs … that may have been why he ended up short of competitions this year before the world championships.”
“He might follow a schedule where he'll be ready for a maximum performance with a few less outdoor races.”
It all boils down to less outdoor races required to achieve a maximum performance as well as an insurance policy against injury ruining his chances at the Olympics – a situation that occurred last season in Osaka where a hamstring injury in June curtailed his preparations for the world championships considerably.
Francis is not the only world class coach willing to give advice to the world record holder, particularly in terms of his mental state during championships.
Many critics including Michael Johnson have accused Powell of lacking the killer instinct required to peak at world championships and cope with the pressure of being the favourite.
Young French coach Pierre-Jean Vazel - coach of world championship 100m fourth-placer Olusoji Fasuba also debunks the notion that Powell is psychologically fragile.
“In the three years Asafa had a major champs race (2003, 2004 and 2005), he did his season best in the very next competition, about 12-14 days after,”
“This is not a mental problem; this man is tough to overcome humiliation from Osaka to break the WR at his very next race.”
“Confidence comes from preparation, and this is where the problem lies for Asafa, more precisely enough races pre- champs and proper warm-up in order to not peak too late.”
“He couldn't respond to Tyson in the final due to lack of competition, not because he is weak mentally.”
Sentiments echoed by Francis, “Sure he'll never win a big one if his management team doesn't recognise the clear performance pattern from his competition history and looks for a psychologist to answer a training question.”
“But if they look at his competitive history and training and simply repeat it with the appropriate number of lead-up races before Beijing, he'll win.”
In the race to become the fastest man on earth it seems its advantage Asafa.
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