Avatar Aang wrote:
Mr. Pedantic wrote:
Here's a better question that no one seems to be asking:
Why are there really weird fanboy type people oddly message board warrior-like about individual sprinters from the past who were neither particularly charismatic, nor all that consequential-in hindsight-. On this board (a distance based website to boot), every once in a while, someone randomly posts hyperbolically about:
Ben Johnson
Donovan Bailey
Michael Johnson
Maybe to a lesser degree Bob Hayes
And now....Asafa Powell.
All Powell ever seemed to do was get walked down by Gay and Bolt. It happened CONSTANTLY, and not just in championship finals. If the argument is that he had impeccable speed endurance, then that's either the weird fanboy 'ish I am talking about, or Gay and Bolt's "SE" were just that historically good , much to to Powells poor luck (while that's probably true -drug fueled or not-, I would contend that other guys like Blake and Atkins also less dramatically walked down Powell on occasion in the last 40 meters, too).
Powell seemed to be era defining when he started to churn out low 9.8s, and then high 9.7s, with near regular consistency. But in hindsight he was really just a bridge between the Greene era and the Gay/Bolt era and he isn't really all the defining. The only reason he could have been capable of a 9.6x is because he would have been pulled through it in the wake of Bolt and Gay (and perhaps Blake), not because he was -in and of himself- that much of a stand out in his OWN era.
This is probably the weirdest assessment of one of fastest sprinters to ever live that I've ever seen. Calling Powell a bridge, inconsequential or not much of a stand out is dumb at best. Bolt literally looked up to Powell and it was primarily because of Powell's performances. Bolt wanted to run the 100m BECAUSE of Powell. Powell is the reason the reason Jamaican sprinting became relevant on the men's side seeing as how in 04, 05, 06, 07 Powell was either the best 100m in the world or the best 100m in Jamaica. Bolt took over and added to that when the prime of their careers overlapped.
He also regularly beat Gay until the finals in Osaka and that was in a season where Powell came off of 1 or 2 injuries which is why his season best going into Osaka was only 9.90. He ran that only a week or so before the championships. Tyson had already run 9.84 and 19.6 or 19.7 that season and was clearly the better sprinter that year up to that point. Powell being the world record holder at the time wasn't going to magically get him in better shape than Tyson. It's not an excuse for him giving up in the race, however the context behind that race along with various other match ups are far more nuanced than him simply getting run down. By the time Powell and Gay raced again, Gay had come into his own and was also faster than Powell who continued to deal with various injuries.
As far as Powell being capable of 9.6, I think it was obvious that he was. Based off his typical race pattern, I seriously doubt that he would have needed anyone to "pull" him to 9.6. He ran 9.72 with almost 0 wind and no one around him past 40m. Not only that, he had a few pretty glaring technical flaws that if corrected would have not only allowed him to run 9.6 but would have made the 2nd half of his race far more consistent. In general it's pretty foolish to think that he couldn't have ever run 9.6 unless he was pulled there.
I have no idea why you're even bringing up Atkins. He literally beat Powell once and fell off the face the earth afterwards.
No-one was “pulling” Powell to anything, he was not that kind of guy.
“Glaring technical weaknesses”? Like what? Bear in mind that each athlete is physiologically unique and that there is no standard perfect form or race pattern.
Powell had plenty of options to go 9.6, and he never did, because he got “unlucky” with conditions. Lausanne has a bit of elevation, which helped that 9.72.
It is forgotten that Powell was great early in his career, beating guys like Greene and Gatlin, and going 9.77 a bit later on. Back then, he used to win some super-tight races against some of the greats. I remember a race where he was shoulder-to-shoulder with Greene the whole race, and pulled ahead in the last 8m!
As far as SE goes, Powell’s was great, as good as anybody’s, ever—WHEN HE DIDN’T PACK IT IN. Which, in his later years, was not that often. He didn’t always pack it in completely and jog through the line, many times he just eased up because he knew the race was lost, like when Dolt drifted by him a few times in head-to-head’s.