Internet Desk: They were fierce competitors on the track but at the same time shared a good friendship. Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell feels it will need some effort to break Usain Bolt’s 100m record of 9.58 seconds he set in Berlin.
Powell himself held the 100m world record between 2005 and 2008 until Usain Bolt burst into the scene.
Bolt, who announced his retirement after the London World Championships next year in August feel the 100m record set by Bolt will stay for a long time.
“I would say it is likely to stand for a very long time,” Powell said in a media interaction organised in the capital on Friday by Puma ahead of the Delhi half-marathon.
Powell reckons the Berlin race was special. “I was in that race. I was pretty much the best starter in the world and he was already ahead of me at the start. So, he had a great race. It’s going to be very hard for someone to come and match that run,” said Powell.
The star sprinter from Jamaica has to his credit the record of breaking the 10 second barrier more times than anyone else. He broke it 98 times in his career.
On being asked about his thoughts on the Tokyo Olympics, the 33 year old feel he may not continue that far. He hinted that the Commonwealth Games in 2018 will be his last race.
“I am not thinking about 2020 right now, the farthest I will be going is 2018, maybe the Commonwealth Games and that’s where I see myself, just two years and not 2020,” said Powell.
Powell, however, refrained from commenting on doping in sports, putting the onus on the federations to find a solution.
“The federations need to ensure that sports remain clean. I think the federations are doing their job and its really up to them and the media to really solve that problem,” he said.
“It’s not my job to say whether it is right or not. The federations are the ones in charge and they should be doing their jobs. I am sure they are fixing all the problems,” said the Jamaican.
How can cricket be left out during an interaction with a Jamaican? Asked to comment about his love for cricket, he said he used to play the sport in school.”My school cricket team did very badly, so I quit cricket after playing for one year,” he said.
“Cricket was earlier very big in Jamaica. It is still big but athletics is bigger now. Chris Gayle is my friend and I love to watch him play and I want to watch cricket. But I don’t follow cricket much now because I train in United States and no cricket is shown on TV there.”
Asked to comment about his sporting idol, Powell said, “While growing up I looked up to my eldest brother Donovan (who represented Jamaica in 4x100m relay in 200 Olympics). Later on, I admired Maurice Green. I wanted to run with him, I did and I beat him.”
Maurice Green is the former 100m world record holder and 2000 Olympics gold medalist.