When Jeremy Wariner won the 400-metre sprint at the Paris Diamond League meet last Friday, he set a world leading 44.49 seconds. The time was also equal to Jamaica’s national record that was set by Roxbert Martin 12 years ago. It’s a record that not many Jamaicans have gone close to since then, save for Ricardo Chambers who clocked 44.62 in Atlanta, Georgia in 2007.
Jermaine Gonzales had shown promise from early in his career as an athlete that he was capable of running fast 400-metre races but injury to both hamstrings reduced him to watching from the sidelines since that day in 2006 when he clocked a smart 44.85s in Rome.
2010 though has been a breakout year for Gonz as he is called by his friends. The year before was the first time he was running injury free for several seasons but his times were not impressive as he tried to make it through the season and remain healthy, something that had eluded him for four long seasons.
He had become so disillusioned that he had even begun to consider other events. Some pundits suggested he take up the 800 metres, some the 400 metre hurdles. Gonz has admitted that he gave much thought to the 400 metre hurdles as an option, just so he could resume his career that really had not got off the ground even though he copped a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2006. That was the last year he competed for the better part of any season since his high school days when injury threw him down during a marquee match-up with his friend and training partner Usain Bolt at the Boys and Girls Championships on a rainy afternoon just under a decade ago.
Early in the season Gonz produced from mediocre times over the distance further cementing in people’s minds that perhaps we were never again going to see anything great from Jermaine Gonzales. That was until May 1, when he produced his fastest time in years, a 45.22 while finishing second to Tyson Gay at the Jamaica Invitational. Gay had run an astonishing 44.89s a couple weeks before in Florida but Gonzales closed on the the speedy Gay with every stride and just failed to catch up at the line.
That performance obviously gave the lanky runner a lot of confidence going forward because each time he stepped on the track after that he went faster and faster. He lauded his coach Bert Cameron for pushing him, motivating him. Cameron’s work was definitely paying off.
Next was a stop in Morocco when Gonz dropped his time to 45.06 at a meet in Rabat on June 6. He said that that his aim was to break the 45-second barrier and so he did. After almost being decapitated by a television camera in Rome and didnt finish, G0nzales showed up at small meet in Sotteville, France and dropped his time to 44.79s, a personal best for a win over the much respected American Angelo Taylor, who ran a fast 44.74s to finish second to Wariner (44.73) at the meet in Rome. That was on June 12.
On July 8, in Lausanne, Gonzales finished third, again behind Wariner in a new personal best 44.72s. And just this past Friday in Paris 44.63s another personal best while coming second to Wariner whom he pushed to the world leading time.
In just about three weeks in three races, Gonzales has produced three personal bests and looks set to go even faster by the time the season ends. He now ranks as the third fastest 400metre runner in the world for 2010 with only Greg Nixon’s 44.61s and Wariner’s 44.51s and 44.49s faster.
Gonzales finished a stride and a half behind Wariner last Friday, it should give him great perspective on how close he is to breaking Martin’s national record and how close he is to being a contender for a medal in Daegu, South Korea come 2011.
All Jamaica prays he remains healthy.

Gonzales sets three personal bests in last three races

(Daily Telegraph photo) Shelly Ann Fraser tarnished by a series of poor decsions.

It’s sad that Olympic and World 100 metre champion Shelly Ann Fraser now faces sanctions after the prohibited painkiller Oxycodone was found in her test sample following her performance in the Shanghai Diamond League this past May.
What is even sadder are the circumstances under which the drug ended up in her system in the first place.
For those who dont know the details of this case here is a brief synopsis: Shelly Ann underwent a dental procedure in May. Immediately thereafter she flew to Shanghai to participate in the Diamond League meet there.
The travelling caused her sore gums to become inflamed and she was in a world of pain by the time she arrived in China.
There she was treated by IAAF doctors. They gave her pain medication which didnt have any effect at all on her level of discomfort.
Two hours before she was to race, she goes to her coach and tells him that the pain was too much to bear. He then gives her some medication -Oxycodone – that doctors had prescribed for him.
Following the race in which Fraser finishes down the track in a slow 11.29s she forgets to pass on information that she had been given the pain medication before the race.
Thus, she returns a positive sample.
And I feel for her because she has been an inspiration to many and has been doing a great job as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador but here is where I have to acknowledge that a series of bad decisions may have tarnished her reputation forever.
1) The fact that she would have undergone the dental procedure so close to the meet, why not sit the meet out and give herself a chance to recover sufficiently so that she would have been able to participate without the pain?

In the meantime she could have obtained a Therapuetic Use Exemption (TUE) that would have allowed her to take the most effective of painkillers without having to worry about turning up a positive on any random test that she may have had to take during that period.
Having gone to the meet and in pain, why didnt she just withdraw? Or, seeing that the painkillers the doctors had given her, were not doing an adequate job, seek a TUE there and got some real potent medication that would have alleviated the discomfort.
The worst of those choices, however, was to accept the medication offered by her coach Stephen Francis.
Look, he certainly went well, but being a non-medical officer administering a drug to a world class athlete, was as poor a decision as he ever could make.
A hearing comes up soon and the MVP club will make their case and we all hope that there will be room for empathy and common sense when the JAAA disciplinary panel sits down to hear the case.
And in the event that she receives only a reprimand, I also hope that WADA will accept any penalty handed down by the JAAAA and not take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
That way, Shelly Ann would not pay too high a price for the series of bad decisions that has led her to this situation.
The only trouble is, she may have already paid the ultimate price – her reputation.

The last man to beat Bolt (above) was Powell back in July 2008.

After the World Championships in Osaka in 2007 I stopped expecting anything great from Asafa Powell. Having been favored to win the men’s 100 metres, Powell panicked and lost for the very first time to Tyson Gay. He has not beat Gay since.
However, this year Powell came out in what could be the best shape of his life. He is lighter and stronger and ran amazing well during the first part of the season and capped it off with a fast 9.82-second run in the 100 metres in Rome. Usain Bolt tied that season best in Lausanne just over a week ago.
But Powell, last Saturday in Gateshead, London took on a less than 100 percent Tyson Gay in the 100 metres. Gay, who is suffering from a tight hamstring was beaten Walter Dix at the Prefontaine Diamond League in Eugene and even though he ran a fast 19.76s for second, revealed that he was rusty and would need a few races to get sharp.
Gateshead was Gay’s first race after his defeat at the hands of Dix and he was racing against a man who everybody acknowledged was the man to beat this season.
Powell got off to a blazing start and opened up a good lead on Gay going into the last 20 metres of the race before Gay surged and nipped him at the line. The times 9.94 and 9.96 for Gay and Powell respectively hardly matter since they were running into a strong headwind of -1.7 metres per second. What does matter is that Powell seemed to choke again.
Sure, we know he says he forgot that Gay was in the race and he wont make that mistake again but look at the race again. When he began to feel Gay’s pressure Powell noticeably tightened up and started high-stepping to the line. As one observer noted it almost seemed as if he was willing the finish line to come to him.
I believe its time for Asafa to come clean, he panicked yet again. The newfound confidence he has been exhibiting since the start of the season is nothing but a facade as underneath he is still a poor competitor.
Maurice Greene said it best; Asafa is the greatest sprinter in the world when there is nobody who can challenge him in the race but put someone in there who can beat him and he goes to pieces.
If I am wrong, his race against Bolt in Paris this weekend will give you an indicator. Like Gay, Bolt is not 100 percent but he has promised that he is aiming for a fast time, perhaps 9.70s, a time that used to be almost exclusive territory to Asafa.
This weekend I will be looking for two things – the time Asafa produces and whether or not he again breaks under the stress of competing against someone he knows has not lost a race in two years.
And it doesnt matter that Asafa was the last person to beat Bolt. Since that last loss Bolt doesnt seem to know how to lose, nor does he fear losing so he runs free.
I think the time has long come for Powell to start doing the same.

I remember when Veronica Campbell Brown failed to medal in the women’s 100 metres at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin last year, people were sure that it was the end of the line for her.
Then, when she was blown away in the final of the 200 metres by her American rival Alyson Felix, to those doubters it was the final act in the reign of Veronica Campbell Brown’s reign as the queen of Jamaican track and field.
Ha. Based on what we saw at the Prefontaine Diamond League on Saturday, rumours of VCB’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
What many people overlooked in 2009 was that Veronica’s toe inflammation was a lot worse than she had let on and going into the world championships she had even foregone a visit to her doctor because of the mandatory pre-games camp set up in Nuremberg for the Jamaican athletes.
It would cost her.
Even after the championships the toe continued to remain a problem but as it healed Veronica had already been hatching her next move.
In November 2009, VCB let the world know that she was going to be coached by a new coach Anthony Carpenter, a mysterious coach based in Marietta, Georgia who runs a youth track club called Titans.
In less than a year, the manifestations of Carpenter’s work are to be seen by all. First, the World Indoor 60 metre title in Doha. Campbell was not even considered a contender. Her horrible start and poor bio-mechanical efficiency caused people to overlook her. Athletes like Laverne Jones Ferrette from the BVI and Carmelita Jeter, the American, were among the favorites going in as they had registered times of 6.97s, a world leading time, and 7.02s respectively going into the championships. Campbell’s personal best was 7.04s but she had not run an indoor 60 metres in six years.
Still, executing her best start ever and an improved technique leaving the blocks, VCB assumed the lead and never let go.
That was in March, five months after she started working with Carpenter.
Here comes June, three months after Veronica’s unexpected triumph at the World Indoors, Veronica after a few trial run where she clocked 11.05s and 22.32s over the 100-metres and 200 metres respectively, Veronica was down to run at the Adidas Grand Prix Diamond League in New York. There she was matched against her rival Felix, who had triumphed over her in Berlin and who had beaten her six of the last eight times they had met. What is most notable is that VCB’s two victories against Felix came in the 200-metres finals at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008.
It was a close race but VCB, despite suffering cramps, prevailed in an incredible 21.98 seconds. Felix would finished in 22.02s. It was a close race but VCB showed the kind of speed necessary to take her back to the top.
On Saturday, she showed that she was faster than ever.
VCB’s manager Claude Bryan had mentioned in 2009 that the Olympic champion recognized that for her to realize her dream of winning an Olympic 100-metre title she would need to be capable of 10.7s and 10.6s. After Saturday’s performance she seems to be well on her way.

I prayed that the rain stayed away and for the most part it did over the weekend and we got a taste of what is to come later this season as Asafa Powell and Shelly Ann Fraser ran good times to please the small crowd at the National Stadium on Sunday.
Shelly Ann Fraser produced a solid 22.49s to beat a weak 200 metre field and even though she said she was aiming for a faster time, I was happy that she seemed to be back on track to produce some good times this season.
Fraser’s early season preparation was disrupted in part by an ankle injury that had her wearing a protective boot earlier this year. She also had some relatively modest – by her standards – outings with 11.14 and 11.04 over the 100-metre clockings in Europe earlier this season. The 11.04s was run in pretty bad conditions and which suggested she was on her way back to full fitness.
However, on Sunday she showed that if she was not all the way back, she is almost there.
Fraser dominated the curve, making up the stagger on virtually all her rivals and came home comfortably. The time was one of the fastest this year over the 200m and augurs well for her performances in Europe in the Diamond League later this summer.
Powell, who has shyed away from the 200-metres for years now, was even more impressive.
The last time anyone can remember that Powell ran the 200-m competitively was in 2006 when he ran 19.90s. Since that time Usain Bolt reduced those times to the halls of mediocrity, but then Powell, while immensely talented is no Usain Bolt, so his 19.97s run was very impressive.
The former 100-metre world record holder literally cruised the first 90 metres of the race and then exploded down the stretch to win by a margin that we have become accustomed to see Bolt winning by.
He later revealed that his blocks had slipped at the start. We also know that Powell has since 2005 when he hurt his groin running a 200m in Dominica, been skittish about running the curve. This makes his time even more impressive.
He revealed after the race that Coach Stephen Francis has plans for him to run about two more 200-metres this year, no doubt in a bid to get Powell to improve his speed endurance. This was one of the areas in which Powell was exposed in his races with Bolt and American Tyson Gay, who as natural 200m sprinters have a significant edge on Powell with regard to speed endurance.
Powell has been working hard on all aspects of his race and his world leading 100m times are evidence that he is improving. Earlier this season he delivered an impressive 31.6s 300m run in training that was an indicator of the type of season he was going to have.
Powell has been pushed down to number three in the short sprints but I dont think anyone would be surprised if he starts climbing up a slot by the time this season comes to an end.

So, some of the big stars were absent and the crowd was tiny (partly because of the threat of rain and mostly because of the World Cup) but there was still enough entertainment during Day One of the two-day National Senior Championships being held at the National Stadium.
In the absence of 2007 World 100-metre champion Veronica Campbell Brown, Olympic and World 100-metre champion Shelly Ann Fraser, and Olympic and World 100-metre silver medallist Kerron Stewart, the women’s 100-metre finalist was a face-off between 2006 Commonwealth 200-metre champion and 2008 Olympic 100-metre silver medallist Sherone Simpson and former high school prodigy Carrie Russell for the national female sprint title.
And what a race it was. Simpson, who recently recovered from a hamstring cramp and two knee surgeries and Russell engaged in a battle royale for the entire with Simpson managing to hold off the young upstart to win in a season’s best 11.12seconds to Russell’s 11.18seconds, a personal best.
Yes, the times aren’t exciting as many would have hoped and given that we have got used to 10.7s and 10.8s from our girls but considering that there are no major championships this year and that Russell, especially in only her first full season as a senior, the times are quite solid.
Simpson has run faster each time she has stepped on the track this season so this 11.12s shows that she is on her way back to the form that saw her run 10.82s into a 0.7m/s headwind in 2006.
These two ladies leave the island soon for meets in the US and Europe respectively. It will be interesting to see how soon these ladies join Kerron Stewart as the Jamaican women to dip under 11-seconds this season.
Michael Frater (10.13s), Kemmari Roach (10.13) and Lerone Clarke (10.18s), will make Sunday’s 100m final worthwhile, even if there is no Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, or Yohan Blake.
We also got to see signs that Jamaica’s male 400-metre runners might just be making a comeback.
Jermaine Gonzales will not be running, choosing instead to focus on the European circuit this season but Ricardo Chambers with a very easy-looking 45.75, Allodin Fothergill and others are promising to make Sunday’s final quite intriguing. Will we see another Jamaican join Gonzales in running sub-45seconds? We can only hope.
In the women’s version, we can expect a sweet match up between Sherika Williams (50.95) and Novelene Williams-Mills (50.71) in Sunday’s final. Rosemarie Whyte could also be a factor in the finals.
Leford Greene is looking like he will be a world beater over the 400-metre hurdles. His 48.9s was impressive in that he hit a couple of the hurdles down the stretch and slowed noticeably as he approached the line. He is clearly one to watch by perhaps 2012 or 2013.
There was not much else to write home about but Sunday promises to be an even more entertaining day at the National Stadium.

I hope it doesn’t rain on the National Track and Field Championships this weekend because I am hoping to see some good performances from some of our less famous athletes who now have a chance to make a name for themselves.

We all know by now that some of our biggest stars will not be at these championships that are being held to select teams to the NACAC Under-23 Championships in Mirmar, Florida, the CAC Games in Puerto Rico and of course, the Commonwealth Games in India this October.

Usain Bolt, Veronica Campbell Brown, Kerron Stewart and several other stars will not be there, but Asafa Powell will, and Sherone Simpson and perhaps Jermaine Gonzales, and Ramone McKenzie, who I am eager to see now that he has turned professional and training with Lance Braumann in Clermont, Florida.

Sometimes things happen for good reason and opportunities open up for athletes who need the work. Simpson, for example, the defending Commonwealth Games 200-metre champion, still not certain about attending the games which start in October. If she does well at the trials, however, she will at least have the option of delaying her decision but at least she would have qualified.

Simpson has been working her way back to the wonderful form she had in 2006 when she had the top eight fastest times in the world in the 100m including a world’s best 10.82s, and two of the fastest times over the 200 metres (22.00). Two knee surgeries though have destabilized the knee so she hopes to get it strong enough so she will be able to run like the wind at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea next year.

She has recovered from an injury she picked up in Korea earlier this season and we hope we will see her at her best come Saturday.

McKenzie has shown much promise since his days at Calabar and we now get to see in what ways he has improved as he tries to make one of the teams being selected to represent Jamaica this season.

Of course, the biggest reason I want the rain to stay away this weekend is because Asafa Powell, former world record holder in the men’s 100-metre sprint, has announced that he wants to run a ‘complete race’ as he chases Bolt’s seemingly impregnable world record of 9.58s. It will be interesting to see if he can pull it off or at least get close.

With Bolt not at his best this season and just coming off an Achilles tendon injury and with Gay, the second fastest man all time, nursing a sore hamstring, Powell has stolen the spotlight so far this season, running incredible times including a speedy 9.82-second run in Rome after experiencing a horrible start.

Powell is leaner and stronger this season and as we all have come to know by now, runs his best races in the middle and near the end of the season.

The defending Commonwealth Men’s sprint champion could make a serious assault on Bolt’s record but how close he goes will depend on how agreeable the conditions are.

Last but not least, we hope we get to see Gonzales, who just over a week ago clocked a personal best 44.79 seconds at the Sotteville Athletisima in France.

It should be interesting to see if he can go even lower as he finally gets the chance to fulfill his immense potential.

Is it just me, or is Veronica Campbell Brown packing some real mean muscle these days? VCB, one of the fiercest competitors in the sport, ran an impressive, world-leading 21.98s in winning the 200 metres over her main rival Allyson Felix at the Adidas Grand Prix in the New York leg of the IAAF Diamond League last Saturday, June 12.
The win and the time is a clear signal that VCB is well on her way to making herself a contender for the gold medal in the 200-metre title at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea next year.
Given her competitive nature it could not have been easy for Veronica Campbell Brown, the defending world champion in the 100m to finish fourth in the event in Berlin in 2009. She finished behind Shelly Ann Fraser, Kerron Stewart and American Carmelita Jeter. The winning time of 10.73s is 0.12seconds faster than VCB’s best.
The two-time Olympic 200-metre champion also failed to win her pet even for the third time running, as Felix defended her World Championship title for the second time.
None of this could have been easy for the woman many now call the queen the track.
Following her relatively poor performances, caused in part by an inflamed toe, VCB adopted a different strategy. Based on what her manager Claude Bryan revealed, VCB recognized that if she was going to remain competitive in the women’s sprints, she is going to have to run faster. She was going to have to be stronger, much stronger.
Carmelita Jeter pretty much created the blueprint following her bronze medal finish in the women’s 100 metres in Osaka in 2007. It was one of the closest finishes in World Championship history. It took several minutes for officials to decide that Veronica Campbell had claimed her first and only 100 metre title as a senior, over American Lauryn Williams and Jeter.
Jeter failed to make Team USA to the Olympics in Beijing for 2008 and late that year went to train with noted American coach John Smith. She emerged in 2009, bigger, stronger and as we all saw near the end of the 2009 season, a lot faster.
At the World Athletic Finals Jeter destroyed her Jamaican rivals clocking 10.64s, the second fastest time ever run by a woman, and following that up with an equally fast 10.67s in China.
VCB may be copying that blueprint. Following the World Championships in Berlin, VCB parted ways with her long-time coach Lance Brauman, hired Anthony Carpenter and set off on a new path to world domination.
She started with the World Indoor 60 metre title in a personal best 7 seconds flat. She attributes her success to better body placement inside the blocks and working on getting out of those blocks better.
What she did not mention was her very apparent focus on adding more muscle power.
At the Jamaica International Invitational, her thighs bulged with new power. Those piston-like thighs seemed even bigger and more powerful at the Adidas Grand Prix.
We eagerly await what she will bring to the table for the remainder of this season and then in 2011 and beyond.

Tyson Gay nurses a tight hammy

It’s interesting to note the number of injuries being sustained by some of the world’s best athletes during this year when there is no major competition but a year that marks the inaugural season of the Diamond League.
So far, for the most part, the Diamond League has not lived up to expectation. We have seen remarkable runs from Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Carmelita Jeter and this past weekend by Allyson Felix and Veronica Campbell Brown, but besides the latter two meeting up at the last meeting in New York, there have been few marquee match-ups of note. Bolt and Gay were to have met in New York but injury put paid to that possibility as both Bolt and Gay, the two fastest men in history are recovering from injury – Bolt, a swollen Achilles tendon and Gay, a tight hamstring.
Besides the head-to-head between Bolt and Gay, many fans of the sport, including myself, were looking forward to the head-to-heads between Jeter and Jamaica’s Kerron Stewart. Since Jeter assumed dominance of the women’s short sprint since late last year, the only sprinter that seems likely to break her unbeaten run was the powerful Stewart, who without any speed work, ran Jeter to the line at the National Stadium at the Jamaica International Invitational on May 1; 10.94s to 10.96s. That race had set up the possibility of some tantalizing clashes between the two female speedsters during the course of the season, but on the weekend at the Sotteville Athletisima in France, Stewart suffered a hamstring tear while running the 200 metres and seems set to miss at least six weeks. Word is she might even opt to skip the entire season – the reason being that she could possibly use the remainder of the season to properly recover and then start preparing for the World Championships in Daegu in 2011.
Of course, there are other battles to behold on the track and in the field – the javelin, the 800 metres, male and female; the long distance runs, the shot put, high jump, long and triple jump, but the blue riband events are the sprints. The fastest men and women on the planet are who hold sway.
Hopefully, we will see some worthwhile clashes as the summer rolls on as Bolt has resumed training, and Gay will hopefully be healthy soon. Of course, they will be going up against the man who is stealing the thunder right now – Asafa Powell, who has been running really fast this season, going four for four in the 100m and with a season best time of 9.82, despite a very slow start in his last race in Rome.
Had he had his usual reaction time of between 0.154 and 0.120, his time in Rome could have easily been 9.7x or faster.
For the sake of the Diamond League here’s wishing that everybody returns to full health soon because a successful season sets things up for an even bigger year next year.

All season long I had been saying to myself that Usain Bolt didn’t seem quite himself. He is still winning every race he runs, yes, but he wasnt winning with the level of dominance that we saw in 2008 and 2009.
The thing is we have been spoiled by the high standards Bolt sets for himself. When he ran the 19.56s over the 200 metres at the national stadium on May 1, I found myself thinking that he could have gone faster as opposed to recognizing that the time was the fourth fastest in history and that only he, and one other man – Michael Johnson – had ever gone faster.
He then went to Daegu where his 9.86s 100-metre run didnt look all that impressive. He really worked hard for that time but because he has shown us 9.58s, we have come to believe that he needs to approach that time every time he steps onto the track.
He then drops 19.76s over the 200 metres in Shanghai and again I was not satisfied. Again, he seemed to be working too hard and failed to get that unbelievable separation from the mortals he was competing against.
Then yesterday after clocking 30.97s over the rarely run 300 metres and failing to break Michael Johnson’s standard of 30.85  that was run in Pretoria at altitude 10 years ago, Bolt finally confirmed my suspicions. “I am not in the same shape I was in in 2008 and in 2009,” he said, still breathing heavily from the effort. “I’m done.”
All season long Bolt has been saying that he plans to take it easy this year. He plans to break no records, only do what is required to win.

It should be interesting to see how this relative lack of fitness from Bolt plays out when he goes head to head with both Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, who look really sharp this year and are aiming to topple Bolt, even if it is for just one race.

Those races are going to be fun to watch, the anticipation palpable, because now that we know what we know, we are forced to acknowledge that there is no certainty that Bolt will win. Drama.

For the remainder of this season, its not Bolt against the clock, its Bolt against the two other fastest men in history. Superman has taken off his cape and returned to the ranks of the mortals and that is the kind of drama track and field needs.