I’d love to run for Nigeria – Dasaolu

Britain’s Nigerian-born sprinter, James Dasaolu, believes he is on a perfect curve to his peak,

He is currently the fastest man in Europe this year and Britain’s second fastest man of all time with a personal best of 9.91 seconds in the 100 metres, a feat achieved at the British Championships in Birmingham in July. James Dasaolu became only the fourth British sprinter to beat 10 seconds as he clocked a time that is just 0.04 seconds slower than Linford Christie’s British record of 9.87.

He opened his 2013 calendar by winning silver in the 60 metres at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, running a personal best of 6.48 seconds in the final. The Nigerian-born 25-year-old was tipped to win the Birmingham event with a better performance but a late withdrawal from the competition meant Dwain Chambers had to lead the pack in 10.04 sec to claim a seventh British crown. It would have been Dasaolu’s first national crown, but he preferred to pull out of the 100m final (due to cramp) in order to be in perfect shape for the IAAF World Championships in Moscow. His plan worked.

 It was almost perfect in Moscow, until exhaustion took its toll with about 40 metres to go in the final. In the semi-finals, Dasaolu had posted his second sub-10 seconds performance, finishing third in 9.97. Dasaolu ran the final with the “big boys” – featuring Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin and Nester Carter – but fell short of the expectation. His 10.21 seconds was only good enough for the eighth and last position.

 But that would not dampen his spirit as he is already looking ahead to the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the 2016 Olympics. “Had I not picked up an injury in the build-up, I would sure have finished with a medal at these championships. I picked up an injury three weeks prior to these championships which did not enable me to train so my build-up was impaired,” Dasaolu, who had set twin targets of running sub-10 seconds and reaching the final, told SATURDAY PUNCH.