Usain Bolt gravitating towards 100m

Richard Bryan, Freelance Reporter

Bolt versus Asafa in a 100 metre race? Not much of a contest, it may seem at this stage. But hold your horses.

Expect Jamaica's junior and senior record holder over 200m, Usain Bolt, to add the 100 metres race to his armoury, according to his coach, Glen Mills, the man recently selected by the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association as Coach of the Year.

That accolade is tied largely to his work in helping Bolt overcome his developmental injury problems while guiding his transition of dominating the junior level to being competitive at the senior level.

Bolt, who has now established himself as a consistent world class 200m competitor, has shown a considerable appetite for the shorter sprint and according to Mills, the sprinter will focus on competing in this event.

Raised the stakes

Last year, after finally fulfilling a nation's expectations of cementing his unmistakable talent among senior competition with a 200m silver at the World Championships, Bolt raised the stakes by racing to a 10.03 clocking in Europe last September.

It would surprise most that, Asafa Powell's succession of sub-10s apart, Bolt's time is the fourth fastest time legally clocked by a Jamaican and may be the driving force behind his determined interest.

Bolt would have raised expectations for a great season with an eye-catching run in a 400m at last weekend's Queen's/Grace Jackson meet at Stadium East. His performance largely mirror what most local experts, including Mills, had opined, that he could be a world class competitor in the 400m.

However, Mills confessed the Trelawny-born speedster is not so inclined.

"He wants to concentrate on running more 100 metres," Mills told Star Sports in an interview recently. "He has shown a strong preference to run in the shorter distance; that's going to be a major emphasis for him - to run more 100m.

The differing point of view of an athlete and his coach is nothing new as far as Mills is concerned and he cites the case of Olympian Grace Jackson.

"Its common in athletics," he revealed. "Someone like Grace Jackson could have been a world beater in the 400m, but she didn't feel it was an event she must concentrate on."

At 58, Mills has been seriously involved in coaching athletics at the national level since the early 1970s. He is deemed to have a special ability to coach and guide sprinters and the name of Raymond Stewart may quickly fly from most lips as his most phenomenal local athlete he has coached. However, Mills reckons Bolt is the most blessed as far as talent goes.

"He just has amazing speed for his height. Usually that kind of speed is related to people of shorter stature," noted Mills.

He was unsure, however, when local fans could see Bolt in the 100m this season.