Saturday, April 24, 2010

Bolt hails Williamson potential

Simeon Williamson

Watch Williamson win the 100m final at the 2009 World Trials and UK Championships in Birmingham

Athletics superstar Usain Bolt says Simeon Williamson is Britain's best hope for a sprint medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Williamson, 24, got as far as the 100m quarter-finals at the 2009 World Championships but impressed Bolt when the pair trained together this winter.

"He can have a couple more years to shape up, sharpen up. I know he's got a good start," said Bolt.

"If he gets really serious and works really hard, he deserves to step up."

Bolt, the Olympic and world champion at 100m and 200m, added: "For me, Simeon Williamson looked good training with us."

Williamson's personal best for the 100m is 10.03 seconds, some way short of Bolt's astonishing 9.58 at last year's World Championships.

Bolt's predecessor as Olympic champion, Justin Gatlin, returns from a four-year drugs ban at the end of July, and the Jamaican said he would not have a problem with running against him, but expected Gatlin to struggle to get back to the required standard.

606: DEBATE

"For me, it's going to be very hard to come back from that," he said.

"I think the intensity of the competition is getting harder over the years.

"I don't really look forward to running any one person I just go out there and compete with the best.

"If he comes back and I compete against him, I have no problem."

But one thing Bolt is not so keen on is the possibility of stepping up to 400m.

"A lot of people want me to but I don't want to do it. But if I have to do it, I guess I will do it," he said.

"If it takes that for me to become a legend in the sport I guess I will but otherwise I wouldn't want to do it."

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