In his last competitive race, Asafa Powell was leading the men’s 100 metres Olympic final about the 30-metre mark. By about 40 metres he had pulled up in pain, another chance for gold gone. Powell’s next competitive run will be in Stawell on Saturday. From the most-watched sporting event in the world in London’s Olympic Stadium, to Victoria’s Wimmera. He smiles at the apparent absurdity of it. But for an athlete who has enjoyed success in Australia – he won Commonwealth gold here in 2006 – it was not a difficult sell to return to Victoria. Stawell has long had a strange capacity to draw the world’s better athletes – former world champion Kim Collins raced there, and last year Powell’s Jamaican teammate Michael Frater also ran – but Powell is another level again. He held the world record for the 100 for nearly three years – running 9.77 seconds three times before cutting that to 9.74 (it was later bettered by Usain Bolt). He has a best of 9.72 and has run under 10 seconds for the 100 more than any other man (88 times). He is adamant that time and Bolt have not irretrievably passed him by. ”No, […]
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For the first time – in this its 52nd staging – the Intercollegiate (Intercol) Track and Field Championship will be used to aid in selecting students to the World University Games. The championship, to be staged over two days – April 5-6 – at the UWI/Usain Bolt Track, will act as the first-round pool of selection for the national team to the World University Games, to take place from July 6-17 in Kazan, Russia. The disclosure was made by Rashid Hall, chairman of Intercol, track and field, during yesterday’s press launch of the 2013 VMBS Intercollegiate Track and Field Championships at the Principal’s Council Room, University of the West Indies. The press conference also witnessed the signing of the Brighton Declaration on women and sport, by Intercol second vice-president, Dalton Myers, general secretary, Moyann Simpson, and treasurer, Valdimir Wallace. The declaration aims to develop a sporting culture that enables and values the involvement of women in every aspect of sport. “We would normally use the National Championships to select the athletes, but because of the closeness between the Games and the National trials, we are unable to do that,” Hall disclosed. “So what we are doing this year is to […]
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For the sixth time in his outstanding career, Usain Bolt will compete at the Belgacom Memorial, the second of two finals of the Samsung Diamond League, on 6 September 2013. He will decide later in the season whether he will contest the 100m or 200m in Brussels, but either way he is expected to be one of the biggest stars of the meeting. Since making his first appearance in Brussels back in 2007 when he finished third in the 200m (20.14), the Jamaican superstar has notched up four successive victories. Arguably the most impressive of these came in 2008 when he clocked a meeting record of 9.77 into a stiff -1.3m/s headwind. The following year he smashed the meeting record in the 200m with 19.57, which was bettered in 2011 by training partner Yohan Blake with his stunning 19.26. At that same meeting in 2011, Bolt improved his 100m meeting record to 9.76, then last year successfully defended his title with a 9.86 clocking. Bolt will not be the only big name in Brussels on 6 September. Three weeks after the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, the Belgian capital will again welcome many of the newly-crowned world champions […]
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The VMBS Intercol Track and Field Championships which will be held on April 5-6 at the UWI/Usain Bolt Track will be launched on Tuesday March 19th, 2013 at 11:00am in the Principal’s Council Room (above the Admissions office) at the University of the West Indies. The launch will be an opportunity to inform the public of the exciting event details and new developments as well as to kick start the ‘Journey to Kazan” Campaign. “The championship is the largest event held by Intercol on the sporting calendar; it brings together most of the schools within the association competing in the sport of Track and Field over a period of two days. This meet features over 25 national representatives including Olympians and a number of the nation’s top rising stars in the sport including Rasheed Dwyer, Jordan Forte, Traves Smickle, Jenevive Russell, Carrie Russell, Jason Young and Hansle Parchment. Athletes such as Asafa Powell, Sherone Simpson, Shericka Williams, Rosemarie Whyte and a host of other Jamaican stars have competed at this meet over the years during their transition from high school to professional sport.” says Rashid C. Hall, Marketing and Scholarship The UWI Sports Department
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