Tuscaloosa (Alabama), April 7 (IANS/CMC) World and Olympic 400m champion Kirani James has announced that he will open his 2013 season in the Bahamas next weekend.
The Grenadian, who created history by winning the country’s first ever medal at the London Olympics last summer, Saturday confirmed his participation in the Bahamas Invitational scheduled for next Saturday.
The event at the Thomas Robinson National Stadium also includes a list of Olympians the likes of Veronica Campbell-Brown, Kellie Wells, Trevor Barry, and Demetrius Pinder.
“Training over the winter has been good and consistent. I’d say I’m in good form, but we’ll find out for sure next week (April 13) at the Chris Brown Bahamas Invitational, which is my first race of 2013,” said James, a part time student at the University of Alabama here, in the United States.
“I am just getting ready for that at the moment, and we’ve been working on everything – conditioning, stride length, speed.”
James has also announced that he will compete in an All-Star 4x400m team at the Penn Relays Saturday April 27.
The team will also include Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad & Tobago, the 400m bronze medallist at the Olympic Games in London.
“Last year I managed to break 45 seconds in all of my finals. I’d like to do the same again this year, but we’ll just have to wait and see what shape I’m in,” James said.
“My first race is always a kind of ‘let’s-see-where-I’m-at’ race. It’s really like a warm-up meet, and after that race my coach and I will go back to the drawing board and look at where I can improve.”
Since 2008, James has won Commonwealth Youth gold, World Youth gold, the World Juniors, World Championships and Olympic gold last year.
His Olympic victory in a personal best of 43.94 seconds qualified him as the eighth fastest man in history over one lap.
“After winning the World and Olympic titles in the past two years, sometimes people ask if it’s difficult to stay motivated, but actually I don’t find it difficult at all,” said James.
“My goal each season is to be consistent, and my long-term career goal is to have longevity spanning many years.”
–IANS/CMC
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