Daniel Bailey dominates Yohan Blake in a close contest – Meeting de Strasbourg et des DNA
The ‘Meeting de Strasbourg et des DNA’, an athletics contest held at the French city Strasbourg, on Sunday, June 12, observed an overwhelmed crowed extending their support for performers bent upon overdoing their rivals. In such an extravaganza, the limelight
was stolen by sprinters, Daniel Bailey and Yohan Blake.
Bailey, the 24-year-old sprinter from Antigua and Barbuda, who specialises in 100m run, was the flag bearer for his country at the inaugural ceremony of the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece. While Blake, the Jamaican sprinter who also boasts of
a World Junior bronze medal, holds a national record in 100m run.
The 21-year-old runner is also known for tying up with Seun Ogunkoya, the Nigerian sprinter who happened to be a two-time African champion as the youngest sprinter to have beaten the ten-second barrier at the age of 19.
The event at Strasbourg had its own importance in the backdrop of performances displayed by athletes at Montreuil a mere five days ago, where Blake had clocked an emphatic 9.96 seconds, while Bailey ended third on the podium for finishing in ten seconds.
The second place of the run was claimed by Christophe Lemaitre, the 21-year-old French sprinter, who marked a national record for clocking 9.97 seconds.
After the display of power by sprinters at Montreuil, they were expected of clocking fast times at Strasbourg where even weather conditions were quite supportive.
Nevertheless, the performance depicted by Blake in this recent event was rather dismal, unlike in Montreuil, while running in lane 4, he could not get rid of the blocks. Taking the opportunity, Dwain Chambers, the English sprinter with Afro-Caribbean descent
showed a quicker move. Before the final damage could be done to this prestigious contest, Blake made some quick strides to reach Bailey and Chambers, to later on finish just behind the rival from Antigua. For marking 10.04 seconds, Chamber finished third in
the race.
Blake, who was rather disappointed for finishing second and that too with a marginal difference, expressed his thoughts by saying, “I will now eat right and get prepared. I have enough time before the trials to fix the poor start I did today. I think I just
lost focus, because my training before the race has been perfect.”
Commenting upon his run while giving an analytical insight, Bailey, the top finisher of the event said, “The first part of my race and my transition phase were perfect. There is still room for improvement as basically, my stride length is a little bit too
shot.”
The second finisher of the Beijing Olympics, who was now longing for Jamaica after a detailed visit to Europe, added further about his recent visit to France and said that it helped him learning about how to acclimatise. It also helped him about adjusting
with different eating habits.
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