Michael Frater - AP

People have always put limitations on Michael Frater. In an era of tall sprinters, they are of the belief that, because of what they feel is his physical limitation he is unable to accomplish great things. Time and time again, he has proven them wrong and he intends to do so once more this year.

Listed at 5' 7", the diminutive 2005 IAAF World Athletics Champion-ships 100-metre silver medalist is again being looked at as the most likely to get left behind as Jamaica selects its team to the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea. This, as Jamaica seems to be producing sub-10 sprinters by the day.

So far this season, other than Frater who has recorded a personal best 9.94s over 100 metres, Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, Steve Mullings, Nesta Carter, Yohan Blake, and Nickel Ashmeade, have all broken the 10-second barrier. Mullings has been fastest, clocking 9.80 seconds, making him the fourth fastest Jamaican of all time behind Bolt (9.58), Powell (9.72) and Carter (9.78).

With only three sprinters guaranteed individual spots on the team, in the minds of his detractors, the depth of quality might be too much for Frater to overcome. He has been hearing this all his life but the doubts only serve as extra impetus to prove the doubters wrong.

"I've always been the one that was too short or something. It's just fuel to the fire of the passion that I have, not only to go out there and prove people wrong, but to prove to myself that I don't have, to listen to critics who are going to say I am too short or I can't do this," the 2003 Pan American Games champion said.

"I have certain goals for myself that I am going out there to accomplish, whether or not people are going to say negative things about me, that I can't do it because of their particular reason."

Frater, 28, the 2002 Conference USA 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay champion while a student at Texas Christian University (TCU), acknowledges that these national championships are going to be the toughest yet but believes that as long as he is healthy he has a good a shot as any of making the team.

"These championships will be the toughest there has ever been because of the quality. I am just hoping to stay healthy, knowing that if I do the best I can I will be satisfied with that. When I am healthy, I am capable of running with anyone in the world," said the sprinter who marginally lost a close race to American champion Tyson Gay in the NCAA Division One Champion-ships back in 2004.

had to be faster

Back then, Gay was clocked in 10.051 to Frater's 10.059 but the latter knows he has to be faster - somewhere between 9.8s and 9.9s - to get into the team at the national championships set for June 23 to 26, as most athletes will not be in their very best shape by then. At the championships, he intends to prove it is still way too soon to call time on his international career. The former Wolmerian who two years ago, was inducted into the Florida-based Boyd Anderson High School Hall of Fame, has had a career that less than a handful of Jamaican sprinters can better. In addition to having a successful high school career that includes a CARIFTA Games sprint title, being Pan Am champion, and World Championship 100m silver medallist, Frater was also a member of the gold medal-winning 4x100m relay team that set a world record in winning gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and set a championship record at the in World Champion-ships in Berlin the following year. Still, he hungers for more.

"I've done things many athletes have only dreamed of. Among Jamaican male sprinters, only a few can match my accomplishments, but by no means do I think my career is ending or that I cannot accomplish a lot more," he said. "I have had many successes but I am going out there hungry, enjoying track and field and enjoying the competition."

Michael Frater - AP