Express reported Yohan Blake won the 100. Bolt get disqualified. RT and Bleds out in the semis.
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http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/Young_pretenders_and_a_proven_pro-128572578.htmlYoung pretenders and a proven proBy Fazeer Mohammed
Story Created: Aug 28, 2011 at 11:34 PM ECT
What are the excuses now?
I'm sure our man in Daegu (and everywhere else our athletes have competed over the past 15 years at major championships), Kwame Laurence, will have the comments of Richard Thompson and Keston Bledman included in his report on day two of the World Athletics Championships elsewhere in this sports section.
But after proving he had form like dirt in lowering the national record to 9.85 seconds just over two weeks ago at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, and confirming that he was in peak fitness following the heats on Saturday, what could have gone so wrong that Thompson couldn't even make it to the final of the men's 100 metres yesterday in South Korea? Bledman's semi-final time of 10.14 was actually better than Thompson's (10.20), but he was also eliminated at that stage because he happened to be in the fastest of the three "semis," being edged out by Daniel Bailey of Antigua/Barbuda even though both were credited with the same time. Competing in Florida just under three months ago, Bledman returned a personal best clocking of 9.93. So what's the story?
Of course, we already have the explanation of Aaron Armstrong for his abysmal effort in the first round heats, where he clocked 10.48 seconds, which, by the way, is just one-hundredth of a second faster than the 23-year-old women's world record time set by the late Florence Griffith-Joyner of the United States at the 1988 Olympic trials. He said he didn't hear the starter's pistol. I'm sure he would have heard it loud and clear if the race was in Port of Spain, where the only noise these past few days has been the "Bad John" rantings of the Attorney General at midday media conferences.
Every actor loves a stage.
It's being suggested that Usain Bolt was too busy loving up the big stage ahead of the 100-metre final and that the resultant lack of concentration contributed to the false start and sensational elimination. But the gallerying didn't appear all that different from what we saw in any of his triple gold medal-winning performances in Beijing or at the World Championships two years ago in Berlin...and we all loved it, except of course the perpetually sour president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge.
Not surprisingly, the modified false start rule, which immediately penalises the offender, has now come into focus with silver medallist Walter Dix of the United States incredulous that the larger-than-life Bolt was thrown out of the event. But that shouldn't matter, should it? The rule is supposed to be the same across the board, whether the offender is the biggest name in athletics today or Sogelau Tuvalu, the slowest of the competitors in the preliminary round, although the American Samoan's time of 15.66 was a personal best.
What yesterday's big showdown also emphasised is the ominous strength in depth in Jamaican sprinting these days. They've been world class for more than 60 years over 400 and 200 metres. Now though, the mind boggles at the phenomenal talent that is coming to the fore over the blue riband distance.
Asafa Powell, the fastest man this year, is ruled out with injury. Bolt, the record-breaking defending champion and flamboyant showman of the track, is disqualified. No problem man. Up comes 21-year-old Yohan Blake to take the gold in 9.92 seconds and leave the rest of the world wondering what's in store later on at this meet and what is to come at the Olympics next year in London.
One competitor who will definitely be looking forward to London 2012 is the evergreen Kim Collins. Having retired from the sport following a disappointing 2009 World Championships outing, the mild-mannered man from St Kitts/Nevis felt he still had it in him for a return to the top flight at the start of this year.
And yesterday's bronze medal effort (10.09) behind Blake and Dix confirms that he has made the right decision. Collins will be 36 years old when, if all goes according to plan, he lines up in the heats of the 100 metres at the Olympics in 11 months' time. His story reinforces the adage that form is temporary but class is permanent. That class extends not just to his running style but his overall demeanour on and off the track.
Like Namibia's Frankie Fredericks, another long-serving gentleman sprinter who now serves as an Olympic spokesperson in his retirement, Collins is living proof that nice guys can finish first, or second, or third, even at an age when most would have hung up their spikes for good. More than his lengthening string of achievements (including World Championships gold in 2003 and the Commonwealth Games title the year before), the Kittitian will be remembered, whenever he finally calls it a day, as a decent, erstwhile competitor who brought honour and glory to himself and his tiny country.
Yesterday's effort would have also provided a welcome distraction for his fellow countrymen at a time when the people of St Kitts/Nevis are grappling with a rising level of crime and gang-related violence. We may steups at 17 murders for the year so far (the total for all of last year was 23), but if that murder rate were applied to our population, which is at least 30 times larger, 510 people would have already lost their lives to acts of violence here in 2011.
So Collins has brought his people welcome good news, while we wonder what went wrong in Daegu.
