By NDINAWE SIMPELWE –

. PHIRI

ZAMBIAN star sprinter, Gerald Phiri had a mixture of good and bad performances over the weekend during the American Track League in Canada in the 100 metres dash.
Phiri, who will be Zambia’s leading medal hopeful at next month’s Rio 2016 Olympic Games, finished third in his semi-final heat at the championship with a time of 10:22 seconds to clinch a place in the finals.
He was also the third fastest among all semi-final heats behind Jamaicans Asafa Powell and Dexter Lee, who both were in his heat and finished with times of 10:05 seconds and 10:19 seconds respectively.
However, Phiri had a disappointing final when he finished at the tail end with a time of 10:25 seconds as the rest stepped up a gear.
Canadian Andre de Grasse, 21, stunned favourite Powell to win the race with an impressive time of 10:02 seconds while the Jamaican was second on 10:08 seconds with his fellow countryman Lee close behind in third position with a time of 10:14 seconds.
After the race, Phiri said he will work on his setback in time before the start of the Olympics in three weeks’ time.
“I hurt my groin in Durban and it was just an opportunity to see how it feels in a competition environment and I felt no pain. I am back in heavy training for another week or two trying to catch up on the work I missed while resting my leg, then we will taper down about nine days before the championship,” he said.
Phiri is this year planning to run sub-10 seconds with his personal best time standing at 10.03 seconds recorded in 2014 while his best time this year is 10.08 seconds timed last month in Florida, USA
“I’m working hard and trying my best to get back on track. Unfortunately setbacks are a natural part of our sport but three weeks is a lot of time to fine-tune and taper down,” Phiri said.