Yohan Blake, the Jamaican sprint star, wants to improve his time going into the World Championships in Moscow next year by improving the technical aspects of his race.
Blake, who won the title last year in 9.93 seconds, said his preseason training has already begun as he anticipates defending his 100-meter title in Moscow. But Blake said that to retain his title he must work on the small things.
“My coach, Glen Mills, is a great coach so right now he is guiding me on how to keep my hands working forward,” Blake told the Jamaica Observer. “My start has improved but technically I still have work to do. I still want to get more strident (improve my strides) and if I do that I can shave a lot off my (best) time. “
Blake progressively improved his times throughout 2012, clocking a personal best time of 9.69 seconds in Lausanne, Switzerland in August.
The 22-year-old said he noticed that last year his hand was coming across his body, which caused his him to run sideways during some of his races.
Despite Blake setting a personal record for himself, he said that his personal best came a week later in Zurich, Switzerland when he ran a slower time of 9.76 seconds.
“It was fast but my technique was poor because I came up a bit early,” he said. “The 9.76s I ran after that was better executed, but I pushed less in that race.”
Blake went on to win the 100 meter World Championships crown in Daegu, South Korea last year, but did not have his Racers Track Club teammate Usain Bolt competing against him. Bolt false-started and was eliminated from the race.
Blake carried that momentum into the Jamaica Senior Trials and won the 100 and 200 meters beating Bolt. But Bolt repeated as Olympic champion in the 100 and 200 meters in London weeks later, while Blake took the silver medals in both events.
Blake will be ready for the World Championships, but Bolt is sure to be racing alongside him as long as he does not false-start.
