MELBOURNE, Australia - World record holder Asafa Powell rates himself a 90 percent chance of running the 100 meters at the Melbourne Athletics Grand Prix after the latest assessment of his injured knee.
World 100 meters record-holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica shows the gash on his left knee, Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, that has forced him to pull out of a Grand Prix athletics meet in Sydney. Powell rates himself a 90 percent chance of running the 100 meters at the Melbourne Athletics Grand Prix. [Agencies] |
Powell, who holds the 100m record at 9.74 seconds, required stitches after badly cutting his knee during a fall at his home in Jamaica. He skipped a meet in Sydney on the weekend and was still a slight doubt Wednesday, a day ahead of the Melbourne Grand Prix.
"I would say after today's workout that things went well and I can run through the finish line," Powell said. "I can run at 90 percent, so I would say (my chances are) 90 percent.
"The problem is can I come out of the blocks? So the coach says tomorrow if I can exit the blocks properly then I'll run for sure."
Coach Stephen Francis is confident Powell was ready to race.
"He's 100 percent. The question is whether he is convinced he is 100 percent," Francis told Australian radio. "Yesterday there was some puffiness because of some work he did in the gym. But it's fine now."
The final decision on whether Powell will race is unlikely to be taken until an hour before the race.
Australian Matt Shirvington, who will compete at Melbourne, was a surprise winner of the Sydney 100 after a photo finish with world championship silver medalist Darrel Brown of Trinidad & Tobago.
Olympic and world 400 champion Jeremy Wariner will be wanting to leave Australia on a high note after losing the 200 to local runner Daniel Batman at Sydney.
Wariner, who last month split with longtime mentor Clyde Hart, shrugged off the Sydney loss, but needs a solid performances when he opens his 400 meters campaign for the 2008 season at Melbourne.
"It's a new year and training has been really good, so I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do," Wariner said. "That's my goal every time I'm on the track to run fast.
"Hopefully on Thursday I'll break 45 seconds for the third year in a row."
Wariner's training partner Darold Williamson, a member of U.S. gold medal winning 4x400 relay team at the world championships, is also in the race.
Former top-ranked pole vaulter Steve Hooker of Australia is favorite for Melbourne after clearing the 6-meter mark at a domestic meet last month.
Hooker won the 2006 World Cup and ended that year with the No. 1 ranking, but had a poor 2007 season hampered by an injured knee.
The Melbourne meet is the first 2008 event on the IAAF World Athletics Tour. The tour next moves to Japan in May for the Osaka Grand Prix.
