Rodgers speeds to year’s fastest 100 metres
CHICAGO: Veteran American sprinter Mike Rodgers cruised to the year’s fastest 100 metres when the 33- year- old clocked 9.89 seconds in qualifying at the US championships in Iowa on Thursday.
The performance, in what Rodgers said were new shoes, stole the show from America’s younger generation of sprinters on the first day of the meeting that will decide the United States team for next month’s Athletics World Cup in London.
“I felt like I could have run faster,” said Rodgers, who has been dogged by injury in recent years and not run that fast since 2015.
Talented 20-year- old Noah Lyles had the second fastest time, 9.92 seconds, but unlike Rodgers, his run was wind- assisted, coming with an aiding wind of 3.4 metres per second.
The wind on Rodgers’ race was 1.4 mps, under the allowable 2.0 mps. Two others broke 10 seconds on the fast track at Drake University in Des Moines.
The 28-year- old Isiah Young won his preliminary race in 9.93 seconds while Cameron Burrell, the son of former world record holder Leroy Burrell, posted the same time in finishing behind Rodgers. — AFP