IS BOLT IN TROUBLE?

The experts would have me believe that despite his struggles so far this season, all will be well with Usain Bolt by the time the IAAF World Athletics Championships roll around at the end of August.

Bolt won three gold in 2009 and set three world records and two gold in Daegu 2011 after false starting in the 100 metres that was subsequently won by his RacersTrack Club teammate Yohan Blake. Normalcy was restored in 2013 in Moscow when Bolt again won the sprint double and then anchored the sprint relay team to yet another gold medal.On this occasion there were no world records.

Since then, Bolt hasn’t raced much. In 2014, foot surgery and injuries reduced the world record holder to three races for the season. So far this year, in a handful of races Bolt has not only looked mortal, for the very first time since he exploded into stardom, he doesn’t even look like medal prospect. Since he set world records in both 100m and 200m in Berlin in 2009, Bolt has been slower. Since the Olympics in 2012, even slower still.

The word is that he has been working hard in training and looking good but on the track he has been anything but spectacular. It is true that he still has time but will he be able to overcome the sluggish start this season is something even he is beginning to worry about.

I’m not overly happy with it,” Bolt said after his lethargic 200-metre run at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York last Saturday, his slowest since 2006. “I don’t know exactly what’s going on. I got out of the blocks, and I just didn’t go anywhere. After the turn, I pretty much gave up.” Bolt was so poor Anguilla’s Zharnel Hughes, a rising Caribbean prospect almost beat him to the line.

For the first time in a long time others have been better. In the 100 metres an event in which Bolt has run the two fastest times in history 9.58 and 9.63, he is not even on the radar this season. He is yet to break 10 seconds in the event in which Justin Gatlin has run 9.74 and 9.75, Andre De Grasse of Canada has run a wind aided 9.75, Asafa Powell has run 9.84, and Tyson Gay 9.88. Marvin Bracy, Mike Rodgers, Trayvon Brommell, Adam Gemili and even struggling fellow Jamaican Nesta Carter, potential contenders for his throne, have all also gone under 10 seconds.

Including last weekend’s 20.29s Bolt has not even looked like breaking 20 seconds in the 200m, an event in which he has run 19.19 and 19.30. Things are not looking good for the ‘Tall Man’. It also hasn’t helped that with him at anchor Jamaica lost the sprint relay at the World Relay Championships in May the first time they have not in seven years.

Not for the first time Bolt is becoming mortal. Back in 2012 Bolt was struggling with back spasms and other related injuries. He lost to Blake at the national championships in both 100m and 200m. But even then he ran 9.86s and 19.83 respectively in losing to Blake’s 9.75 and 19.80. Had he produced those times so far this year, he would not be worried as he is now.

“This season is not going so smoothly,” Bolt said on Saturday after a performance that must have even his most adoring fans troubled. “I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. I need to get on top of things, try to work my way back. … At this pace, my legacy is going to be in trouble.”

Coach Glen Mills believes he has a handle on the problem but even he now must be worried. “He didn’t approach the turn with his usual aggression that he’s capable of,” he said trying to explain Bolt’s inability to get going in New York before a large Jamaican audience. “His training is coming along gradually. He’s going to be running a lot more races in order to get him into competitive peak shape. He hasn’t been doing much in terms of competitive running. Over the next two months, you’ll see him doing quite a lot more races with a more aggressive approach in order to get the kind of competitive level we would like.”

Meanwhile, several past athletes and coaches I have spoken with assure me that it is still too early to panic. Like Mills, they say Bolt needs more races. He needs to regain that competitive edge. More importantly, they say, he has time. Its 10 weeks to Beijing where the Lightning Bolt first struck in 2008 and lit up the world of track and field,  enough time for him to regain the mojo that has been deserting him so far this season.

I am hoping the experts are right or Bolt and the sport he represents could be facing some dark times ahead.