BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – KITTITIANS AND NEVISIANS are once again holding their heads high as their local world champion, Kim Collins, races down the 100m tracks at blistering speeds, in just fractions of a second behind the world’s fastest athletes... and he is doing all this in spite of his 10 year old difference in age.
While in St. Kitts nationals were commemorating Kim Collins Day on August 25 to mark his ascension to world championship fame 9 years ago, Collins was abroad busily preparing for the prestigious Zurich IAAF Diamond League Meet which took place on 30th August 2012.
Collins raced then with the world’s top athletes (with the exception of Usain Bolt ) from the recently held London Olympics and placed 4th running his season’s best of 10.01 secs.
So 9 years after becoming world champion Kim Collins is racing at a faster time than he did to gain the world championship (10.07 seconds)
None of the other athletes who raced with him then are presently racing with him now which means that Collins is now racing with a new generation of athletes and is holding his own among them.
It is worthy of note that Collins is now being described as ‘legendary’ and this is added to the other adjectives that were used such as ‘evergreen’, ‘veteran’, vintage’, ‘most consistent’ and ‘forever young’.
At Zurich, Collins revealed what he had already shown at the Russian Indoor Games - that he can be just as fast or faster than he was 9 years ago and that age was not to be considered a factor.
Collins himself tweeted; “Success has no age, race or color. Only your desire”
The results of the Zurich IAAF Diamond League 100m race which took place on August 30 were as follows:
1. Jamaica – Yohan Blake – 9.76 secs
2. Jamaica – Nesta Carter – 9.95
3. USA - Ryan Bailey – 9.97
4. SKN – KIM COLLINS – 10.01
5. Jamaica – Michael Frater – 10.04
6. France – Christopher Le Maitre – 10.07
Just the Sunday before on August 19 Collins placed 3rd at at the Eagle Stadium in Warsaw, Poland at the 3rd annual Kamila Skolimowski Memorial Athletics meet. He ran the 100m in 10.29 secs.
The results of the Polish Meet were as follows:
1. Kemar Bailey-Cole (Jamaica) 10.24
• 2nd Keston Bledman (Trinidad and Tobago) 10.28
• 3rd Kim Collins (St. Kitts and Nevis) 10.29
• 4th Gerald Phiri (Zambia) 10.29
• 5th Dariusz Kuc (Poland) 10.53
• 6th Rytis Sakalauskas (Lithuania) 10.64
Collins now moves to Germany while his fellow countrymen are once again “biggin up they chest” and sharing the joy of victory with their evergreen, most consistent athlete. Sincere congratulations go out to Kim! Well done!
