Asafa Powell 9.96

[zzbottom]

Asafa Powell ran 9.96 into a slight headwind today, beating Richard Thompson at 10.11.

[rogimon]

I was hoping he'd run sub 10. I'm glad he did. He needs to get to 9.8 territory quickly though.

[shearer39]

Oh, I feel he is already there. Based on the description of the race and how he has been looking in training, he is ready to run much faster. My only query is whether he has the strength to sustain such quality, since he cannot be as strong because he has not been able to strengthen the injured shoulder. Still, he has more than 47 days to go until the Olympics. 9.96 is good enough for him to qualify for the Olympics this coming weekend at the national trials.

[ptontheroad]

asafa powell

doubt very much if he will hold up physically or mentally through the rounds of the OG's

[Kevin Richardson]

I am a fan of Asafa's, but he has yet to prove that he can win on the fourth race in two days (like in a Championship). The lack of strength training due to the shoulder injury is not going to help that any.

Here is wishing him the best, though.

[cladthin]

I believe that he actually tore a pec trying some extreme eccentric load in a bench press.

[sprintblox]

He was trying a one-rep max in the bench press with 315 lbs, up from his previous best of 300.

Now why on earth he would be trying a 1RM during an Olympic season, no one knows.

[shearer39]

Its not that strange. Strength gains targets are set for the athletes each season. Apparently Asafa was trying to see if he was reaching his.

[Jaack]

This was in the Trinidadian Champs, where the most bizarre thing happened. Apparenty, in the final, Brown and Thompson "collided" and Brown went splat to the track. Thompson barely managed second in 10.10, same time as Armstrong. How do people collide when they run in a straight line? It's so very "Cool Runnings"- will we see Darrell start a Bobsleigh team next year? Or Will he be given a ticket to Beijing regardless. How is the team chosen?

[JRM]

How do people collide when they run in a straight line?

The universe must be positively curved:

[sprintblox]

Its not that strange. Strength gains targets are set for the athletes each season. Apparently Asafa was trying to see if he was reaching his.

Maybe. But for a non-weightlifter/powerlifter, 1RM during a big season is still crazy. There are other ways to test strength progress, like seeing how many times one can bench press a sub-maximal weight like 225 or 250.

[Jaack]

How do people collide when they run in a straight line?

The universe must be positively curved:

Cheers for that :lol:

[cladthin]

He was trying a one-rep max in the bench press with 315 lbs, up from his previous best of 300.

Now why on earth he would be trying a 1RM during an Olympic season, no one knows.

So you heard a different story. The one I heard is that he was attempting very heavy negatives-well over his 1rm bp.

As far as the timing of it I don't see lifting a lower rep max as a big deal though I don't usually see a need to do a 1rm(I think a 3 to 5rm would suffice). Since it happened back in April/ May( I think?) he had not likely entered into a maintenance or conversion phase yet. What could be troubling would be not so much the weight(for me) for a conventional bp but, if that is the case, trying a technique/method(heavy eccentric lift) that he had never used before. The Olympic year is clearly no time for experimentation. There seems to be some question as to whether or not this even took place, at the time, with his coach's knowledge.