ASAFA POWELL HAS joined his compatriot and 100 meter rival, Usain Bolt, in the field for Rome’s Golden Gala meet.
The Jamaican pair are the two fastest men on the planet at present with Bolt holding the world record of 9.58 seconds.
Powell, holds a personal best of 9.72 seconds with a negligible wind assistance.
The meeting will mark just over a year since the pair last competed against each other, though as friends and training partners they are more than familiar with one another.
Their last race also took place at the Golden Gala event and on that occasion the result went with the form-book.
Bolt, returning from nine-months on the sidelines, narrowly edged Powell by two hundredths of a second.
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Bolt had already booked this race into his schedule when Powell opted in today. However, Powell’s agent, Paul Doyle, said that the identity of competitors at the meeting had no influence on his participation as he builds up to the Olympic Games in London.
“We are being very selective this year because Coach (Stephen) Francis doesn’t want Asafa to race too much this year before the trials, so we are being very selective about what meets he will do,” Doyle told Jamaica’s, The Gleaner.
“To be honest, we have not thought once about who he will be facing, we just try to plan based on coach Francis’ training plan; we want to ensure that Asafa races when he is ready to race. We don’t care who is in the race, the coach has his plans for Asafa and that is to ensure that he is up and running very fast for the trials and Olympics.”
“If he, as a result, has to race Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake or Tyson Gay, it doesn’t matter, it’s all about getting him ready.”
We can’t wait.
