Asafa Powell - Run Jamaica Run!

Written By: Manidip Garai

Athletics is to Jamaica what cricket is to the Indian subcontinent or baseball is to America - Inseparable!

Perhaps it is the race against adversities or the in-built desire to get ahead of limited opportunities that make so many Jamaicans, sprinters of phenomenal repute.

Linford Christie, Tessa Sanderson, Donovan Bailey, Sanya Richards- all achieved stardom with stellar performances and yet were not representing Jamaica at the moment of their class acts. They had migrated to nations where they believed that they could hone their skills with better facilities.

Asafa Powell, one of the prime Jamaican hopeful for the 2008 Beijing Olympics Men’s 100 m dash too could have followed suit but didn’t. It is one of the many characteristics that sets him apart and forces the rest to take a second look at the person who may or may not win the title of being the ‘Fastest Man on the Earth.’

Asafa Powell (born 23 November 1982) wanted to be an electrical engineer before he discovered sprint. He says that he will some-day become one, as he does not like to veer away from course too often, when he is finished with his running around and settles down finally. However as he is the only man in recorded history to have run legally under 10.00 seconds 12 times in a season, that will definitely take some time to overturn.

The 100 m co-world record holder with Justin Gatlin, with a time of 9.77 seconds, was disqualified in the semi finals of his first ever major tournament – the 2003 world championship. Powell was one of the gold medal favorites for 2004 Olympic 100 m, after clocking sub-10 second times a record-equaling 9 times in a season. However, he finished a disappointing fifth in the Athens final.

His moment of glory came when he broke the 100 m world record, in Athens on June 14, 2005, setting a time of 9.77 s. This beat American Tim Montgomery's 2002 record of 9.78 s (which was later annulled due to BALCO doping allegations against Montgomery) by just one one-hundredth of a second. Coincidentally, Powell achieved the feat on the same track as Maurice Greene's 1999 world record of 9.79 s.

On November 12 2006, he received the title of 2006 Male World Athlete of the Year along with a cheque for $100,000. He is definitely one of Jamaica’s strongest contenders for the event that is also known as the ‘king of all athletic events’-the 100 m dash.