Aims to re-enact 2004 Olympic feat
Former 100m and 200m World junior Champion, Francis Obikwelu is keen to re-enact his remarkable sprint feat of 2004 for his Portuguese club, Sporting Clube de Portugal in their forth-coming qualifiers for the finals of the National clubs which will hold from the 4th of March to the 6th in Pombal.
Obikwelu who announced his retirement from competitive athletics after failing to qualify for the 100m finals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics was in great shape as he finished first with a time of 6.69s in the club's first trials in Paris last Saturday.
The 2004 Athens Olympic silver medallist who was voted Waterford Crystal European Male Athlete of the Year for 2006 by the European Athletic Association in an internet poll told a Portuguese website shortly after the race that his slowed pace was as a result of the illness he suffered a forth night ago and would be fully back before the weekend.
"I knew I was in great shape. I was sick two weeks, which made it lowered a bit, but before the week-end I made a good workout, get out of the blocks very well. We are preparing for the outdoor season, thinking of the Daegu World [late August]. The indoor arena is to have fun and help what can I do in the 100 meters. If I am now well out of the blocks, is guaranteed to be able to do 9.95 s or 9.96 s in 100 m”
"Already in 2004 I achieved this and I'm ready this year to beat that European and Olympic silver record. I'm trying to do it again in the finals" he boasted. The qualifiers for the Pombal finals will hold on the 12th and the 13th of this month.
1 comments:
good luck to obikwelu.
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