By Miranda Dunn, World-Track
EUGENE, Oregon — American indoor champion Mike Rogers says he will not get carried away by his recent form that saw him winning back-to-back races in the last two weekends.
For the second successive weekends, Rogers outshined a strong line up to win the men’s 100-metres dash on American soil.
At the Reebok Grand Prix in New York last Saturday, Rogers ran a wind-aided 9.93seconds.
He returned on Sunday at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene with a world-leading 9.94secs run to dismiss even the challenges of former world record holder Asafa Powell.
One meet at a time
But while many are already punching his ticket to go all the way and challenge the big boys at the World Championships in Berlin later this summer, Rogers is not yet jumping the gun.
"I’m running a lot fewer races this year (just) getting my mind focused and just getting ready for Berlin, because I would like to make that team," the sprinter said.
"I just want to stay consistent for the trials," which will also be at the Hayward Field here in Oregon.
Time will tell
When asked about matching strides with the likes of world record holder Usain Bolt and American triple world champion Tyson Gay, Rogers was simple with his response.
"It’s a blessing and I am just happy to go under 10-seconds again," he said.
"(When I meet them) I’ll run whatever God lets me run, so we will se when I get to Berlin.
"When you are in a race you don’t think about anyone else, you just try to get to the line first."
Solid indoor season doing it again
Like he did last season, Rogers again used the indoor season to lay the platform for the outdoor campaign.
The 24-year-old had another notable indoor season where he blasted his way to a personal best of 6.51sec — improving the 6.54sec mark he did twice in 2008.
His solid indoor season saw him finishing fourth at the World Indoors in Valencia last year and then improved his 100m personal best to 10.06, twice.
This year he went faster in the indoors, and the result is a faster outdoor time.
Only Great Britain’s Dwain Chambers (6.42 and 6.46) went faster than him this season indoors. But while Chambers struggles to generate the same form, the American is banging.
"I wanted to make a statement indoor and come out and make a big bang outdoors," the former NAIA sprint double champion said.
