It seems some people jump at shadows very quickly and some pros think that pro running is all that matters. I will put a few things in perspective. For those that don't know, Khan is a good athlete that is extremely injury prone. He is shy and shuns away from attention. He is only likely to be in the country for a short while. He probably wont stay in Australia for much this year and is most likely going back overseas to be with his family for Christmas and might not be back for some time. I will be doing everything I can to convince him to stay, but it is unlikely at this stage. I only hope that if he does go back overseas he still returns to Australia. He will probably only get a handful of runs in this season (if his body holds together) which is hopefully going to include Zatopek, Northcote, Peninsula, Traralgon and Warragul. Hopefully this goes a long way to assist me in convincing him that his form is improving and that he will have a chance in races, and that he should stick around for Christmas and beyond. If he stays, he will be concentrating mainly on getting his ammo performances at a level that might allow him to get a visa to stay longer. He will need to significantly improve to do this. His PB's are 10.50 with +1.0 and 21.47 with -0.4 both in May 2010 in Spanish Town. His fastest results last season were 10.77 with +0.8 and 21.96 with +0.7 in April and May 2011 in Kingston. These are good performances, but are hardly earth shattering, even compared to the better pro and ammo runners in this country who would probably give him a start and still beat him. He was always going to be handicapped somewhere between his PB and his recent best. It doesn't matter how slow he runs at the moment, those previous best performances speak for themselves and he was always be going to be handicapped accordingly, such as starting next to the the likes of other 10.50/60 runners like Bateman & Stubbs and in front of other runners with slightly faster PB's like Mott and now McCabe.
At this stage he is not even conditioned enough for me to confidently send him down the track flat out all the way, because he tightens when he falls off the pace (and then risks injury chasing hard when he is tight). Once his training partner Motty who has a superior PB, superior recent results, and has much better training form; had him beaten it was important that he didn't continue chasing when tight and tired. He was instructed to have a full crack and to only ease off once he was beaten to minimise that risk of injury and allow us to then get another week of conditioning in without him breaking down. Khan also however, has a cultural habit off being so laid back and slowing down dramatically when he gets tired or when he knows he is beaten. We have seen many other athletes from his country do that before when they race aswell. He certainly did that yesterday, and all the training squad found it quite funny to say the least.
Please lay off him, he doesn't need, understand or appreciate this type of attention and these misconceived perceptions and assertions throne around about him. Please allow him to enjoy his athletics and his short stay whilst he is here. Hopefully you all know a little more about him now and can understand a little more about where he is coming from personally and culturally to preserve the well being of his body. Cheers.... Nick.
Today at 10:32 am by Admin
