Tweet
Asafa Powell claims he has been weakened by drug tests
Ashling O’Connor in Beijing
Asafa Powell has been more adamant than anyone about the need to drive doping from sprinting to restore public confidence in the Olympics blue riband event.
But the Jamaican runner has indicated that even he thinks the drugs testers are going too far in Beijing in their quest to produce an unequivocally clean men’s 100 metre champion.
More tests will be carried out at the Games than any previously and 1,500 of the 4,500 blood and urine samples have already been taken. To listen to Powell, it seems the needles have been pointed disproportionately at the stars of track and field.
“I accept how important it is but they’re really down on my case. I got pretty upset two days ago because since I have been here, they have tested me four times,” he said. “They’ve taken so much blood from us we’re going to be very weak before the final.” The 25-year-old is one member of a speedy triumvirate the world is waiting to watch run as fast as they can to the title of Olympic 100 metre champion on Saturday in the Bird’s Nest Stadium.
It is the most mouth-watering contest in years with Powell, Usain Bolt, his compatriot and new world record holder, and Tyson Gay, the world champion, all capable of crossing the line first.
Olympic chiefs desperately need it to be a fair race to help shake the doubts that have plagued the event since Ben Johnson was exposed as a cheat in Seoul 20 years ago. Powell makes it clear at every opportunity that he has no time for cheaters, who he has described in the past as robbers and criminals. Cheetahs, on the other hand, are a different matter altogether.
The laid-back Jamaican, who off the track gives little indication he ever does anything in haste, rather likes being compared with the world’s fastest animal. So much so that he has had the big cat’s spots incorporated into the design of his custom-made ****es.
If Powell, who has a tendency to underperform on the bigger stages despite breaking the world record five times, wins gold this weekend he will have the world at his feet. Until then, he will have to settle with having his world on his feet.
In between the “flywire cabling” that Nike’s footwear designer Sean McDowell claims gives the sprinter a second skin moulded to his size 10 ½ (left) and 11 (right) feet, Powell has given his shoes a sense of what is important to the man.
Two of the spots are dedicated to his two deceased brothers: Michael, who was shot in a taxi in New York and Vaughn, who died after he collapsed on a football field. If he wins, he will also be dedicating his medal to them.
Elsewhere on the glass reinforced nylon, decked out in the Jamaican national colours with a gold sole, he has incorporated a Ferrari - on the basis he generally likes things that go fast - a guitar - he plays bass - and Bob Marley - because he just had to have him on there.
He is hoping the cheetah analogy propels him to another world record but the gold medal is the main focus. “There are a number of things I want to accomplish and that includes getting back the title of fastest man in the world. But that’s the easy bit,” he said. “I have always had the goods to deliver but have had some problems delivering. It’s the one with the level head who will win the race. Anything is possible. You could run 10 flat and cross the finish line first. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a world record.”
Comment