'Gay internally driven to be the best ... '

It was a very hot day in Clermont, Florida, as the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) team of journalists made their way to the Tyson Gay camp for another chapter in the 'Day in your Life' series.

The 96 temperatures, however, did not deter coach Lance Brauman and his star athlete, the American 100 metres record holder with a best of 9.69 seconds, from working out at their training base at the National Training Centre.

Gay, who turns 28 on August 9, has been suffering from a hamstring strain which has been dogging him for some time. He had just missed the Adidas Grand Prix Diamond League meet in New York and now he is working hard to get back to full fitness and to return to the international circuit where he will face his main rivals, Jamaican speedsters world 100 and 200 metres record holder, Usain Bolt, and former world 100m record holder, Asafa Powell.

As Brauman spoke, there was no doubt that he rated Gay highly, both as a person and as an athlete. Gay, Brauman said, was dedicated to his sport and wanted to be the best he could possibly be.

His memory flashed back to August 16, 2009, in Berlin, Germany, the second day of the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics. Bolt won the 100 metres final in a world record 9.58 seconds. Gay was second in an American national record of 9.71. "... Bolt is forcing everybody to go faster, and it was a race in which he ran the best he (Gay) had that day. It was an American record ... was a great time, just that it was not good enough to win that race," Brauman said.

"Everybody wants to be the best. So I mean it (placing second) is a double-edged sword - you are going to be frustrated and happy at the same time," Brauman added. Gay, his coach insisted, wanted to be number one in his events.

"He lives his life for track and field. Everything he does is to be the very best that he could be. He is internally driven to be the best."

Good progression

Gay is very much a student of his sport, especially in the events in which he competes. "He is very much in tune with the history of his event. He understands what good progression is. He understands what people have done in the past and the evolution of the event," Brauman said.

Gay's idol is fellow American Maurice Greene. He (Greene) was the best in the world when he (Gay) was growing up. Greene won the Olympic title in 2000 in Sydney Australia. Before that, he had taken a hat-trick of World 100m titles in 1997, 1999 and 2001.

It is hot now, but Brauman, who made quite a name for himself coaching Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown to nine Olympic and World Championships medals before the two parted last year, would not choose to change his training schedule, which starts at 9:30 a.m. and ends sometimes at 2 p.m. "For this time of the year, this is a bit warm, but throughout the year, this is a perfect time because in the winter it is maybe 50 or 60. So if you go too early in the morning, you will never get anything in. It is not like Jamaica where it is a constant 85 pretty much year round. Here it changes. Once we have settled to this time, the body wakes up and gets adjusted."

Brauman is not concerned that there is no one in his camp who can really push Gay, as he continues his rehabilitation from injury."We do have a good solid core of training partners here. There is Jamaican Steve Mullings, who has run 19.98 for 200m and 10.01. Trinidadian Keston Bledman just ran 10.01. Nickel Ashmeade is a young Jamaican who was running that race (Adidas Grand Prix on June 12) which was won in 10.00 and cramped at the 80m mark so he was on his way to running 9.9, I do believe. Marlon Devonish from Great Britain spent three months here earlier this year." Brauman also does not believe that it is necessary to have top-quality athletes training and working out together.

"Even when I had Tyson (Gay) in college and I had Wallace Spearmon at the same time, those guys would do similar workouts but never did efforts together."

Two young Jamaican sprinters in his camp, Ramone McKenzie and Ashmeade, he said, were in transition.

" ... (We are) trying to get them out of a high-school system straight into a pro system. This is a learning year. We are taking our time trying to progress to it smoothly."

Brauman admitted that Ashmeade was running too fast when he suffered a cramp recently. " ... I thought he was in about 10.10 shape and he's running 9.9, and the body was just not ready for that quite yet and he caught a pretty hard cramp."

Tough individual

The coach is trying to get Gay in optimum shape this season. "This year is about being 100 per cent when he races. He has had a couple of years now where he is 95 or 98 per cent. To run the type of times he wants to run, to beat the people he needs to beat, he would like to show up at the track 100 per cent and ready. This is the year to do that." While saying that, however, Brauman does not think there is a sprinter in the world who is 100 per cent every time he races. "During an entire season, everybody is going to have knocks here and there."

Gay, he said, is a pretty tough individual but he has been having nagging injuries on and off since 2001.

With Gay injured and Bolt also off the track with tendon trouble, the new IAAF Diamond League is not getting the top billing it deserves.

Brauman does not think the new league is much different from what obtained last year. "(There are) positives and negatives but conceptually it is not much different from what it was last year or in previous years."

The basic idea of the Diamond League is to have more head-to-head clashes among the top athletes in certain events, but according to the Brauman camp, the only confirmed clash among the top-three sprinters is Brussels' Van Damme Memorial meet on August 28.

Besides Gay and Bolt, Jamaica's Asafa Powell is the other member of that big three. "When you are talking about those three guys, if you can get all of them all at the same place and they are all healthy at the same time, it should be fun to watch."

Brauman has plenty respect for the extraordinary ability of the world's fastest man, but he and his charge are not overwhelmed by Bolt.

"It is not like we talk about him on a daily basis. You train the best you can train and you do the things you need to do to run as fast as you can run, and if you are worrying about somebody else, it's taking away from what you are doing that day yourself," Brauman said.

According to Brauman, Bolt is a track "monster". "He is something the world has never seen. He has got the turnover of a five feet 10 inches guy and he is six feet six. That's hard to mess with. He is a very gifted individual and he has something that most of us don't have.

"He is just right now the best guy in the world."

- E.T.