Chat-bout.net - Emerging sprint star targets Bolt 200m world record

Emerging sprint star targets Bolt 200m world record

Up-and-coming sprint star Yohan Blake has set his sights on the 200m world record of training partner Usain Bolt and believes it is very much within his reach.

Yohan Blake

After claiming the World Championship 100m title after Bolt false-started at the Daegu Games, Blake went on to finish the season on a high, running a blistering 19.26 seconds, at the Diamond League meet in Brussels, just seven one-hundredth of a second off Bolt's world-record mark. The time posted was the second fastest of all time, behind Bolt's 19.19 seconds, set in Berlin at the 2009 World Championships.

Much energy

"The world record? "Why not? Look back at that race in Brussels. Coach Mills said to me, 'I know what you can do, take it easy on the turn and fly down the straight'. I didn't use much energy. I was comfortable," Bolt told The Times. Blake is in fact sure that the 200m is his stronger event.

"I am the 100 metres World champion, but I am a better 200 metres runner because I have a lot of endurance."

The athlete is, however, at the same time aware that Bolt, who many believe had a disappointing season last year, by his standards, has no intention to stay where he is and is also hungry to improve. In fact, Blake believes his emergence has forced the double Olympic champion to put more effort into his training regime.

"He knows I work harder, much harder," Blake said. "He has said it himself, but now he is training harder too. He saw what I did and knows what I can do. He knows I have trained assiduously all my life. I know what poverty feels like; I know hunger. And he wants to repeat what he did in Berlin and is working on it."

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