Powell on the mend
By Dania Bogle
Former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell will be using the next several weeks before Jamaica’s national championships to continue mending from a hamstring injury which has hampered him since last August’s Olympic Games in London.
Powell, pulled out of the Stawell Gift handicap race in Australia earlier this month because of the which also forced him to pull up during the men’s 100-metre final in London.
Powell reportedly “experienced soreness during warm-ups … for the 120-meter race in western Victoria state, his first competitive appearance since London.
The tall sprinter finished third in his heat in a time of 12.24 seconds. Earlier this month he told MilesplitJA that he is looking forward to winning a medal at this year's IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Moscow, Russia after shaking off the disappointment of last year's Olympics.
Powell, who turned 30 on November 23 last year, pulled up half way down the track and was unable to complete the men's 100m final in London on August 5 after suffering a recurrence of the groin injury which has haunted him for years.
His team-mates Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake captured gold and silver in the race which went down as the fastest men’s 100m final in Olympic history.
"The groin injury that I had there (Olympics) I took some weeks off and got
some rest and just went back into training," the six foot tall sprinter
shared.
The athlete suffered new tears to an abductor muscle but said he has been on the mend for some time since August.
"It's going well so far. No signs of any injury right now, so I would say the
recovery is going good," he said.
Powell said that despite speculation that he would have done surgery on the
injured member, he never had any such plans as the area is one on which it would be would be difficult to operate.
"There was never any surgery to be done. People just been talking about surgery. I didn't say anything about that. The point of the injury ...a surgery cannot be done there," he said.
While he did do some physiotherapy the rehabilitation work on the athlete's leg was done mostly in the gym.
As the 2013 track and field season progresses Powell said he will be competing in only a few meets preparing for the big show this August.
The athlete, who won individual bronze medals at the 2007 Osaka and 2009 Berlin World Championships as well as a gold medal in the 4x100m in Berlin, said he was supposed to run a few meets earlier this season but opted against it in the end.
He stated however that once he is in good form he expects to do well at the World Championships.
"This is a very big year. I'm just going ...once I'm healthy and I'm in good
shape I should put on a good show...I should be in a good position to get a
gold medal or be on the podium,” he said.
"I don't want to do too much work. Want to save my legs and save myself so
I'm only doing two races before," he said.