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Usain Bolt Seeks Injury-Free Sprint Showdown With Tyson Gay in 2011
World and Olympic champion Usain Bolt says he wants himself and Tyson Gay to be in top condition when the sprint arch-rivals meet again on the track in 2011.
Bolt, 24, ended his 2010 season this month because of a lower-back problem. Gay, 28, has been plagued by a chronic groin injury, including at the world championships last year in Berlin where Bolt broke his own records in the 100 and 200 meters.
“I want everyone to be in the best of shape next year so when the showdown comes there will be no doubt,” Bolt said in a telephone interview from his native Jamaica after the renewal of his sponsorship with sporting-goods maker Puma AG. “Everybody 100 percent fit and focused and ready to run. That’s what I’m looking for.”
Gay, the 2007 world 100 meters champion, beat Bolt in a race in Stockholm on Aug. 6. The American then ran the world’s fastest time this year of 9.78 seconds a week later in London after Bolt had shut down for the season.
“He’s done really well,” Bolt said. “I think Tyson wants to prove he can be one of the best. I think he really wants to break my record and I respect that. This makes the sport more exciting to watch.”
Bolt, whose 100-meter mark stands at 9.58 seconds, said he’s been exercising while sidelined and will resume training in October. He’s eyeing next year’s world championships in South Korea, where Gay and Jamaican Asafa Powell, the silver and bronze medalists in Germany a year ago, are expected to challenge.
“I’ve been doing a little bit of exercise but not too much because my coach doesn’t want me to overdo it,” he said. “First Monday in October, I’ll really be kicking off training. That’s when all the business starts.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Bensch in London at bbensch@bloomberg.net.
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