Age just a number for evergreen Collins
Just weeks away from his 40th birthday, Kim Collins is preparing for another improbable tilt at glory at this week's World Indoor Athletics Championships -- and insists his career is far from finished despite his advancing years. The veteran sprinter from St Kitts and Nevis is roughly twice as old as some of his youngest rivals in the 60 meters in Portland, where he will be aiming to bag a medal fully 13 years after taking silver at the 2003 World Indoors. But age is just a number for the 39-year-old 2003 100m world champion, who has the fifth fastest time in the world over 60m this year at 6.51secs. "It's crazy when these young guys come and tell me how much their mum or their dad are big fans," Collins said here Thursday. "It's really cool hearing that. But my thing is if I'm going to quit, those young guys are going to have to beat me. And right now they're not doing it. "Last year I was unbeaten indoors; this year I had two minor mishaps. But I'm looking forward to coming back and taking this world title and then you can ask me 'Don't you think I should quit?'" Collins, who first competed at a major championships way back in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, where he made an early exit in the heats, attributes his remarkable longevity to fitness. "The beauty of doing track and field so long is that your body remembers," Collins said. "I have no problem racing because I've been doing it for so many years. I always tell the young folks who try go in reverse, who try to get fast before they get fit -- once you get fit first it's easy for your body to last as long as I have in this sport. "So I try to take care of my body to make sure it can perform." Collins is hoping a good performance in Portland will persuade St Kitts' chiefs to select him for an Olympic swansong in Rio de Janeiro this year, what would be his fifth Olympic Games. Collins was sent home in disgrace from the London Olympics by team bosses after making an unauthorized overnight stay outside the athletes village to see his wife.
