Even if he is a few weeks late, Usain Bolt has the same old message: Catch me if you can.

There was no sign of the world and Olympic champion in the early-season races he usually runs back home in Jamaica. And sure enough, there were fears he was late with training, or worse, not fully recovered from last year’s back injury.

Not so, said agent Ricky Simms.

The reason for the belated start to the season is simple. The 27 August – 4 September world championships in Daegu, South Korea, start almost two weeks later than in Berlin two years ago and Bolt doesn’t want to peak early. Also, since the defending champion does not have to qualify for the worlds through the national trials at the end of June, there is no need to peak twice in one season.

And with Jamaican sprinting as strong as it is, even Bolt would not be able to make the team by just cruising through qualifying.

During the Kingston Jamaica Invitational over the weekend, Bolt’s training partner Yohan Blake impressed by clocking 9.80 seconds in the 100 meters. If it wasn’t for the slightly excessive 2.2 meters-per-second back wind, it would easily have topped the year’s fastest mark.

Still, the triple Olympic and world champion is far from his best at this moment.

He’ll probably be happy to be just a nose ahead of his next competitor when he has his first race in Rome. Bolt will take on compatriot and former world record-holder Asafa Powell and European champion Christophe Lemaitre in his first race in Italy.

While Bolt can race Powell all he wants, what most people are really looking forward to is a duel with American Tyson Gay.

In August last year, Gay produced a great 100 to beat Bolt in Stockholm to end the Jamaican’s two-year unbeaten streak and prove to everyone that, on any given day, even the greatest sprinter of his time can be beaten.

Simms refers to that 100 as little more than “the race where he a had a problem with his back.”

Bolt ended his season after the loss, got treatment, and started winter training in October.