Yomi Omogbeja (25/07/2004)

Most seasoned track coaches will tell you that the most acceptable way to run the 200 metres today is to consider it as having three parts: the pick-up, the float and the finish.

The average 200 metres man will gain top speed during the first 60 metres of his race, relax into a float for about 100metres, and then pick it up in a finish of about 60 metres.

However, an increasing number of progressive coaches and psychologists regard the race as a single unit in which the man sprints as fast he can but with minimum tension all the way.

If the minimum velocity is gained six seconds out from the start, the problem then will be that of maintaining this type of speed for as long as possible and yet achieve minimum deceleration at the finish.

Inexperienced sprinters will be wise to follow the ‘float' method until they learned how to relax at full speed.

They may lose some races by misjudging the distance of their kick at the finish, but the experience gained would be worth it in the end.

Awareness tactics

Many coaches and sprinters follow such tactics. Although not looking over at their opponents, they ‘feel' his exact location and the effort he is making and adjust their own race accordingly.

This is quite effective when a man has definite confidence in his own finish and can run just behind his opponent's shoulder throughout the middle of the race.

But, the man who is specializing in 200 metres and has made his careful study of it competitively, who knows when to sprint without tension, who is well conditioned and physically mature, will follow the “maximum speed, minimum deceleration” plan.

There will be no time in which to relax into a ‘float'.

This is particularly true in the the running styles of great 200 metres specialists such as Carl Lewis, Frankie –the flash- Fredrick, Bruny Surin, Michael Johnson, Mike Marsh et al.

Spectators will say that he simply sprinted 'all-out' all the way, but as was the case of the best performances of Carl Lewis and/or Michael Johnson, they are surprised about how relaxed and at ease they looked.

They will be certain he could have done much better had he really tried, but like it happened to Francis Obikwelu, when he won his 200 metres semi-final race with a personal best of 19.84 in Seville 1999, the easiest one will be his best race.

He lost the final race miserably due to nerves to Maurice Greene.

• This piece was first written by Yomi Omogbeja - M.Ed Sports Psychology, University of Ibadan - and published in the The Vanguard newspapers, Nigeria in July 2002.