Xavier Carter, LSU - Four-event winner, 100m, 400m, 4x100m Relay, 4x400m Relay - NCAA (© Kirby Lee)
Xavier Carter, the world’s fastest 200 metres runner last year, admits that nothing he achieves here tomorrow night at the Weltklasse Zürich meeting of the IAAF Golden League will fully compensate him for missing the World Championships in Osaka, but a fast time will certainly help.
Carter made no attempt to follow the action from Osaka – “if I am not participating, I would rather not watch,” he said here today – while he trained in Baton Rouge to be ready for Zürich.
Although the 21-year-old former American footballer will be denied a chance to topple the World champion – Tyson Gay runs in the 100 metres here – he expects Usain Bolt to push him to a quick time.
Both Carter and Bolt, runner-up to Gay over the half lap in Osaka, have set their sights on running a personal best time and the American said: “I am hoping to run a PR – I have been training hard enough so I figure I can run a PR or, if not a PR, win.”
When Carter talks PR he is talking the third quickest time in history. His current best is the 19.63 he ran on another Swiss track, in Lausanne, 14 months ago. Only Michael Johnson, with his extraordinary world record of 19.32, set at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and Tyson Gay (19.62) have run quicker.
A knee injury suffered at the United States trials knocked Carter out of the running for Osaka and, asked what he thought of the 200 metres final in Japan, he said: “I didn’t watch it so I couldn’t tell you what I think of it.”
So where was he at the time?
“I couldn’t tell you,” Carter said. “I was probably at training. My coach told me the results later on that night.”
And his reaction?
“I was like Tyson won, he’s a good athlete, Bolt came second, he’s also a good athlete – I figured it was going to be around Bolt, Wallace (Spearmon) or Tyson – and Tyson came out with the victory, so it wasn’t anything that was shocking to me.”
Carter was training all the while with Zürich in mind. “The knee injury should have put me out for the rest of the season but I have worked hard to rehabilitate and get back in shape,” he said. “Now I feel I’m 100 per cent so anything could happen.
“The doctors said it was a freak accident because my kneecap popped out of place but, since rehabilitation, I have not had any problems with it. It is a bit of a disappointment that Tyson is not running because this is my World Championships but Usain Bolt is a great athlete and we are going to push each other. Whoever wins, wins – but it is going to be a good time.
“When everybody else was running at the Worlds I was training. I didn’t make it (to Osaka) but I can’t dwell on that. I just have to get out there and run. Nothing can make up this season for it but, if I get a PR. at least I know my training has been going well.”
Although Carter missed Osaka, since his injury he has run relay races in London and Stockholm, as well as a ‘B’ 100 metres in Stockholm. “That was all part of the plan to keep him going to be ready to run here,” Mark Block, his agent, said.
Carter has trained twice on the new track which is said by meeting director Patrick Magyar to be “super fast” because of its composition and gentle bends and is convinced that it will contribute to a fast race. “It is super fast,” Carter said. “It has a lot of bounce in it and you can explode on it. But I didn’t notice the curve.”
Bolt has had a consistently impressive season, setting personal bests at 100 metres (10.03), 200 metres (19.75) and 400 metres (45.28). His 200 metres time, set at the Jamaican national championships, broke by 0.11 the 36-year-old record of his hero, Don Quarrie.
The same age as Carter, at 21, Bolt is a former World Youth and World Junior champion with time enough yet to complete the set with the senior gold medal. His immediate aim, though, is to improve the national record.
“I am looking forward to this because it’s a new track and maybe I can get a personal best on it,” he said. “I have not had a chance to run on it so far but I am a good corner runner so I’m looking forward to that.”
David Powell for the IAAF
