JAMAICANS DOMINATE INDOOR SPRINTS TOO

So far this year Jamaicans have been responsible for the eight fastest times in the world this year over the indoor 60-metre dash. Those eight times are shared by three athletes – Lerone Clarke, Nesta Carter and Asafa Powell. This is also the first time in a while that this little Caribbean island has had this many of its elite sprinters participating indoors.

This particular indoor season for these three men, represents the first critical step to what they hope will be a great season outdoors.

Clarke, the Commonwealth Games and Pan Am Games champion outdoors, has for a few years now made a good living running indoors. When your country produces four of the fastest men who have ever lived, one has to find ways to eke out a decent living, and with the indoor 60-metre dash Clarke has found his niche. It is a niche that he has so far defended proudly, having two of the top three times in the world this year – 6.47 and 6.50. He ran the 6.47s, which by the way, is a new national record, in defeating Powell and Carter, his two more celebrated countrymen at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham, England on Saturday, February 18. The previous record (6.49) was held by Michael Green, who like Clarke, and Usain Bolt; attended William Knibb High School in Falmouth, Trelawny.

The new time represents Clarke’s gradual progression over the distance over the past few years as he continues to make his name indoors. It also makes Clarke the favourite for win the dash at the World Indoor Championships set for March. Clarke has been running indoors for almost a decade, some of that time as a collegiate athlete, but he finally came into his own back in 2010 when he delivered at the time, a personal best 6.55-second run in Leipzig on February 13, that year. In addition to that performance, Clarke also won the 100-metre title at the Commonwealth Games and together those performances helped him land a shoe deal with Puma that runs through until this year.

With a sponsor on board, Clarke, who has run under 10-seconds only once in his career, has been able to focus completely on improving his performances and so far, so good.  He mentioned during an interview on Nationwide radio after he won the Pan Am title last year, that the Puma sponsorship has helped him a lot as they are taking care of his physical needs, things that he would have spent a lot of time worrying about in previous years. In 2011, he lowered his personal best to 6.52s in Karlsruhe, Germany on February 13. This year, his personal best also came in February but this time on the 18th. Clarke, who intends to be on that plane to London this summer, is hoping that he improved 60m will help his get to the times that will see him earning a spot among a roster that includes the very fastest men of all time.

Powell and Carter, the third and fourth fastest men in history, have now turned to indoors to help sharpen the first half of their 100-metre races. Already rated among the best starters in the world, both men know that with the competition for medals so intense between them and athletes like Tyson Gay, Usain Bolt and freshly crowned world champion Yohan Blake, the start is extremely critical to their success. Gay, Bolt and Blake have been blessed with better speed endurance by virtue of their hard training at over distance and consistent competition over the years in the 200 metres. For Powell, who fears the 200 metres and Carter, who runs the deuce sparingly, stealing the march on their competitors gives them at the very least an early edge. It is why over the past few seasons Carter has indulged himself in the 60 metre dash.

The former student of Manchester High has progressed from 6.54s in 2010 down to his present 6.49s as he seeks to make his mark as a medal contender at this year’s Olympic Games in London. In equaling the previous national record he finished just ahead of Powell who clocked a personal best 6.50s for third. Carter, by virtue of his 9.78s clocking in Rieti, Italy in 2010, is the fourth fastest man of all time, but he needs the silverware to back up his performances. Already with gold medals in the sprint relays, Carter is now eager to prove he can do it on  his own, but with three of the fastest men in history – Powell, Blake and Bolt – vying for spots in London this summer, he is very much aware that any advantage he can get is very welcome.

For Powell, a man who has run under 10 seconds close to 80 times in his illustrious career, this season represents perhaps his last shot at an individual medal at the Olympics. In his debut at the Olympics in Athens in 2004, Powell, known as one of the most explosive starters in history, finished a disappointing fifth in the finals and fifth four years later in Beijing. At those previous Games, in terms of time he only had two men to beat. Now, perhaps four or five. In the intervening years Walter Dix has put his hand up as a man for the big occasion so too has Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago. Both men are now training under the guidance of John Smith and are sure to return to competition faster than ever before. But even before Powell gets there he has to contend with the elites in his own backyard – Bolt, Blake and Carter.

It is why his handlers at MVP have taken on a different approach this season. They have him training harder than ever before. They also have him running indoors to get sharp because they knew it could mean the difference between winning an individual Olympic medal or ending his career without one. Should Powell get out of Jamaica’s national championships unscathed Gay, Dix, and Thompson stand in the way of him being a part of a potential Jamaican sweep. As a result has has taken on a 50-metre dash, a 60-metre dash and is looking to earn himself a world indoor title that would definitely boost his confidence before this summer’s campaign.

The dominance then by Jamaican sprinters of the 60-metre dash this season should come as no surprise then as success this indoor season  for Clarke, Powell and Carter plays significant importance. For people like Victor Conte of BALCO infamy it raises suspicion. However, when one takes an objective look at the scenario, it was only a matter of time before the indoor sprints would be dominated by Jamaica. The island currently holds all the world titles outdoors in all age categories, it wasn’t going to be long before we re-discovered indoors and extended our dominance there.