World's Third Fastest Man
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LIKE good wine, Kim Collins is mellowing with age as he has proven to the world that the competitive spirit which dwells within him is alive and running at top gear.
News coming out of Daegu, Korea states that the 35-year-old Kittitian sprinter today (Aug. 28) clocked 10.09 seconds in the Men’s 100 metres of the IAAF World Championships to earn himself and country a Bronze medal, making him the third fastest man in the world.
The race was won by Jamaican Yohan Blake in 9.92 seconds and he was followed by American Olympic Bronze medallist Walter Dix in 10.08 seconds.
However, it was a sad moment for Usain Bolt, the defending champion, Olympic gold medallist and world record holder, when he was penalized for a false start, which under the new rule states that athletes have a second chance in the event of one false start.
Acknowledging that he was at fault, the 25-year old sprint ace took off his singlet in disgust, smiled and departed the track with his head in his hands.
This paved the way for his country man and training partner to dominate the event in which many pundits had speculated a very hard fought battle between the two for supremacy.
The sprinters once again lined up under the starter’s orders and Collins was first out of the blocks but, Blake, who also had a good start, surged past him at the halfway mark while he and Dix breasted the tape in an almost photo finish.
This is Collins’ fifth participation at the World Championships.
He made his debut at the 1997 World Championships, where he failed to qualify for the second round in the 100 m. He however improved quickly and demonstrated this achievement at the 2000 Summer Olympics, making him the first athlete from the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts to qualify for an Olympic final, finishing seventh in the 100m.
In the following year, Collins gave his homeland its first World Championship medal, when he tied for Bronze in the 200m.
Still on the road of improvement, Collins won his first major title at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and was honoured by the government and people of his homeland by being featured on two stamps of St. Kitts in that year.
His greatest moment for the local champion was yet to come, and rightly so it was achieved in 2003 when he was dubbed the ‘World’s Fastest Man’.
This title was earned when he clocked 10.07 seconds at the World Championships to take Gold.
Two years later, Collins earned himself Bronze in the 100m at the World Championships, and
in 2008 finished fourth in his heat to qualify for the finals in the Men’s 200m race in the Beijing Olympics, where he placed sixth.
Seemingly on the downward trend, in 2009 he again competed at the World Championships and reached the quarter-finals of the competition, but was eliminated after finishing fourth.
Maybe that race had prompted him to quit the arena, and in September 2009 he announced his retirement from international athletics, bringing an end to an illustrious career that spanned almost 17 years.
But wait…he reversed that decision some 16 months after and competed at the Aviva International match in Glasgow on January, 29, 2011 and finished fourth in the 200m.
Following that achievement and having experienced a good week of training, he took a win at the Russian Winter Meeting in Moscow.
He also surprised his fans and athletics pundits with a 60m personal best and national record of 6.52 seconds to win at the PSD Bank Meeting in Düsseldorf, overhauling his best mark set nearly 11 years earlier.
That time was however short lived as he clocked 6.50 seconds in the heats of the BW-Bank Meeting a few days later.
Only Thursday (Aug. 25) the nation celebrated Kim Collins Day in remembrance of his achievement that have had the Flag of these two tiny islands fluttering majestically in the international winds.
Today, although some critics had said in the past that he had passed his prime, this 35-year-old son of the soil has once again demonstrated his vintage.
The Board of Directors, Editors and staff of SKNVibes join with the nation in congratulating Kim Collins on his recent achievement and wish him continued success in all of his future endeavours on and off the track.
