Legend Johnson gets protege on track for Cork City Sports

THE legendary Michael Johnson telephoned the organisers of the BUPA Cork City Sports during the week in a bid to get one of his proteges, Darold Williamson, into their July 1 showpiece at The Mardyke.

“How could we refuse?” was the response of the meeting director, Dick Hodgins, ahead of an event ranked in the top six European Athletic Association (EAA) events.

He added: “It was an honour that Michael Johnson should be contacting us about one of his athletes and secondly it was nice to see that Williamson, who was ranked number two in the world last year, should want to compete at The Mardyke.”

Johnson who holds the world record for 200m (19.92 secs at the Atlanta Olympics), 300m (30.85 secs in Pretoria) and 400m (43.18 secs at World Championships in Seville in 1999) is advisor to the world and Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner, and Williamson, both managed by Deon Minor.

Williamson, a 23-year-old student of communications at Baylor University, was a member of the young USA team that won the 4 x 400m relay at the Athens Olympics. He was world junior champion in 2002 and was on the 4 x 400m relay team that won the gold medals the same year.

Last year he ran a personal best of 44.27 secs and will join Wariner at the US Championships this weekend.

His presence at The Mardyke on Saturday fortnight will add a new dimension to what already promised to be a cracking race.

Brandon Simpson from Jamaica, who ran 44.70 secs to win the 400m at the Van Damme Golden League meeting in Brussels last year, is another new entry, joining Clinton Hill from Australia, Mitch Potter from the USA and Ato Modibo from Trinidad.

But the Irishmen in the field will not be overwhelmed. European indoor champion, David Gillick, ran a personal best on his seasonal debut at Lucerne two weeks ago and was a winner again last weekend at the European Cup. He missed Cork last year through injury. Dubliner Rob Daly and Paul McKee will also be in the field.