I just saw the vid, and I re-iterate my former opinion: Blake is now Johnson 4.0
Check out the running style--it is all muscle and power, without much form or grace--only he's no Ben Johnson. What I mean is that he is running as if he had that extreme muscle and power--which he doesn't. He is bulkier, to be sure, but he doesn't have that lightning density that Johnson had.
Blake used to be very smooth--just enough extension at speed, could wind it up well, and cycled beautifully. His race used to be very much like Tyson Gay's, which is why I got really excited about Blake 2 years ago--after all, Gay went 9.7 with that race, and Blake was faster than Gay at the same age. The only similarity between them now is their start--and even at that, I like Gay's better.
But WTF? Has Blake been watching head-on videos from Seoul? Dream on, buddy--it's not going to happen, even on drugs. He needs to drop some weight, and return to his old form, practicing timing and cycling, rather than trying to muscle his way down the track. BTW, muscling like that means that he will have absolutely no chance whatsoever in the 200m.
Either Blake needs to stop completely, do overdistance work and slim down, or he needs to megadose and find the limit.
Or better yet, just put up a decent showing this summer, then bulk up massively and get an NFL tryout.
I agree with the previous poster who said that this wasn't a chump race, with a chump field, and that even if it was, look what Gay did in his chump race against his chump field. There is no excuse for Blake, this was just absolute crap.
It's not like he got out early to a comfortable lead and then cruised the rest of the way. Powell can do that, and DOES do that, and still runs 9.90--a full .15 faster than Blake, even when he turns it off at 80-85m.
Ashmeade is looking MUCH better than Blake right now. Ashmeade is running aggressively, really going for the win, putting the hammer down. Look at the trend--Blake is going nowhere but down, while Ashmeade is going nowhere but up.
Then again there is the possibility of an early peak by Blake and others, and the equal possibility that they will peak again by London--but heck, they have to GET there first, and trials are coming up awfully soon.
At this point, I would say that Powell should also try to make the 200m team, if his body can withstand running a curve. I'd bet that Powell could run a high 19.8x-low 19.9x right now if he actually tried, and I think that could be sufficient to get him on the team.
WTF Johnson 4.0? Go back to the old race model.