^^Asafa’s form looks very strange in this video! He looks to be overstriding rather egregiously. At 3:03 you can see his shins going way past vertical, and his ground contact seems to be well in front of his COM. It’s interesting that this was one of the best runs of his career.
As far as the main point, I’m sure that while the Achilles tendon, plantar fascia, et al. are important links in the chain of force transfer for sprinting, they are trained sufficiently during sprinting, plyos, etc..
I said it years ago on this forum; in time the world will recognise the benefit of foot strike ahead of the COM or ahead of where the sprinting world considers as the best place for this foot strike…provided when adopting this foot strike placement one utilises the maximal sprinting technique as shown by Asafa. Just personally I don’t consider Asafa to be proficient with this technique yet.
It was a technique first introduced by Flo-Jo, replicated by Gatlin (regardless of doping), resurrected by Carmelitta Jetter just recently, and now attempted by Asafa. To successfully perform this technique and get maximum benefit the stretch reflex of the hamstring and the gluteus maximus must be in synch for which stretching beyond this is detrimental and training should be to this point on not beyond. In effect creating artificial stiffness.