By
Rob Draper
16:19 EST, 28 July 2012
|
17:54 EST, 28 July 2012
In the sunshine of Birmingham, the world’s second-fastest man was fairly exploding down the track.
Shirt off, muscles pounding, Tyson Gay looked in the form to dominate as he rose from that sprinter’s starting crouch and, while powering away down the straight, managed to transform himself to full, upright running mode to hit his top speed. Time and time again the ritual was repeated as the American fine-tuned his starts, all focus now a week tonight and the 100 metres final.
Focused: Tyson Gay
In any ordinary year, anyone who had run 9.86sec this season and 9.69 would be odds-on to win the mostanticipated contest of any Olympic Games, the race to be the world’s fastest man. It’s just that 2012 happens to be an extraordinary year.
For across the city last week, the Jamaicans were conducting their own training but not in the open, relaxed manner of Gay.
Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man and No 2 this year, Yohan Blake, No 1 this year and fourth fastest of all time, and Asafa Powell, third fastest of all time and No 4 this year, were conducting their sessions in private, prompting an array of questions.
What have they got hide? How fragile is Bolt’s hamstring? And what is the state of his relationship with Blake, now that his younger training partner has knocked him off top spot?
‘I didn’t know they were training secretly,’ said Gay, unfazed and unperturbed. He is the antithesis of the American sprinter, humble and softly spoken. ‘We’re only 10 days away from the Games and there’s not much you can hide because it’s about to come out.’
But while Gay’s training is open to analysis, with Bolt and Blake we have to guess. Jamaican journalists, who
This article originally appeared on: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/olympics/article-2180394/London-2012-Olympics-Tyson-Gay-quiet-American-ready-blow-Jamaican-dream-apart.html