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Powell positive of recovery
15/02/2008 12:30 - (SA)
Sydney - World 100m record holder Asafa Powell said on Friday he expects to be fit to run in the IAAF World Athletics Tour event in Melbourne next week and remains confident of running ever faster times.
Powell will miss the Sydney grand prix meet on Saturday after cutting his knee when he fell on his stairs in Jamaica last week.
But he hopes to have the stitches removed over the weekend, and if he can train successfully on Monday he will compete in Melbourne on Thursday.
"It's coming on quite well," the Jamaican said on Friday. "It's not moving as fast as I would want it to, but things are looking positive."
Powell, who broke his own world record by running 9.74 seconds in Rieti, Italy, last September, said he was disappointed not to be able to race in Sydney as planned.
"This is why I came to Australia, to try to compete to the best of my ability," he told reporters. "I really wanted to see what I could do here."
But he said the injury was not a setback in his preparations for the Beijing Olympics in August, where he hopes to win his first gold medal in a major competition.
"This week is a rest week for us, so I'm not missing anything in practice," he said. "But next week if I'm not able to run and train I'll be missing out."
Powell, who faded to third behind American Tyson Gay in the World Championship Final in Osaka last year, said he will not make the same mistake again.
"The problem is I get over-confident so I don't do what I usually do," he said. "If I just concentrate on running 9.74, I'll be the winner."
"I am still young. I have more Olympic Games and world championships to go."
Powell also believes he can beat his world mark, but there are no predictions about how low he can go.
"I ran 9.74 pretty easy, so who knows what the numbers are going to be?"
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