Bolt's 2010 focus is on seven Diamond starts

Usain Bolt, the 100-meter world record-holder from Jamaica, will run seven races next year in the new IAAF Diamond League, the sprint star's coach revealed on Thursday.

Glen Mills expects the treble Olympic and world sprint champion to return from a trip to Kenya next week to resume training in Jamaica and begin preparing for the 2010 season, which Mills said will look to the future.

"We are expecting Usain to start training when he returns from Kenya in the first week of November," Mills said.

"The Diamond League is our main project next year, in which he will have seven races between the 100m and the 200m.

"He is going to focus on the Diamond League because that is our number one priority and then we will see how the rest of the season develops and take it from there."

Bolt's management team said that it is not yet certain exactly which of the 14 Diamond League events Bolt will run.

The nearest to Jamaica would be in New York, where Bolt first broke the world 100m record.

Bolt will use the 2010 campaign to prepare to defend his world titles in 2011, which is the stepping stone to defending his Olympic titles from Beijing in 2012 at London.

"What we do in 2010 is going to have a direct bearing on the future," Mills said.

Bolt's breathtaking 2009 world championship finals times of 9.58 seconds in the 100 and 19.19 in the 200 broke the world records he set to claim the Olympic sprint double last year at Beijing. KINGSTON, Jamaica, Friday (AFP)