tenths of seconds away from being the fastest man on the planet

We recently did a junk removal for a building complex. The maintenance manager ( balding and overweight, but a handsome type guy nonetheless) commented on how quickly we were getting the job done. I responded typically for a man in his late forties ” I was a lot faster 20 years ago”. In a thick Jamaican accent he retorted ” not as fast as me thirty years ago man”. I smiled, eyed him up and skeptically nodded my head, because I knew I used to be pretty fast. He gave me a wry smile and walked off with a slight limp. Ten minutes later he returned with a handful of photographs…of  a young slim him…with a big Afro…standing proud on a podium in his track gear. He goes on to tell me that, in his day, he was only tenths of seconds away from being the fastest man on planet, but sadly injury cut his career short. “I’ll give you that one mate” I said. We shared a smile, shook hands and parted company.