Darrel's body has had enough, and that is the grim reality.
I said it a few years ago and I was 90% sure. I am 100% sure now. How do I know? Toward my OWN end, I found that the body simply can't deal with the stresses a 100m dash brings. Now, I was 30, but consider this - I started my career at 16, and my international career at 18! Do the math on how long Darrel's career has been and it should make sense.
I see the same thing in him now. 100m running looks easy, but each one you run is one closer to the end of your career, and that is the reality of every sprinter. We used to joke about rolling out of bed and running sub ten - until we couldn't roll out of bed and break 10.2!
Worse for Darrel and many others, the game has changed, where 10.00 gets you last place in a final now. In Sydney in 2000 it would have gotten you bronze, in Atlanta? 4th.
Marc Burns has made the finals in '05 '07 '08 and '09 (which few have noticed makes him the only one to have done that of all the current crop) but because he is close to 10.00 consistently his best finish is 5th - in 05. 5th this year by Richard Thompson was 9.93! As was 4th!
Those WR's at those age groups as a teen have depleted the tank. He can still contribute greatly but I do not think in the way some are thinking 100m wise.
The camp he is in, MVP, is arguably the best camp on earth. Everyone there is succeeding. Everyone.
When he was with Rolle, Rolle got blamed, but he has led our own Lucas and Jamrock's Kerron Stewart to success recently, so that might not have been accurate...
My documentary 'PRODIGY' will go in depth on this topic in 2010...
Vex/cuss this post if you want, but as someone who has been there, it's the honest, brutal truth.