US sprint kings fire warning shot
America’s sprinters have sent a message to the rest of the world from the US Olympic trials: You have no chance in Athens.
That was their conclusion following yesterday’s 100 metres final in Sacramento, California, in which the top four finishers all ran under 10 seconds in 96-degree heat and with no wind.
Reigning Olympic champion Maurice Greene made good on his long-standing promise to win the event by running 9.91 seconds while 2003 world indoor 60m champion Justin Gatlin put up a personal best time of 9.92secs for second. Fastest in the world this year Shawn Crawford claimed the third spot on the team with 9.93.
A 9.99 run from Coby Miller was only good enough for fourth place, underlining the USA’s strength in depth in the event. Asafa Powell of Jamaica is the only non-American to run a sub-10 this year.
Team USA immediately put on a united front with a joint media conference after the presentation ceremony.
Crawford, who ran a world-leading 9.88 in Oregon last month, said: “We have the best sprinters in the world representing us in Athens.”
Gatlin added: “It’ll be a coin toss who wins in Athens. These two people motivated me to be the best that I could. Shawn is my training partner and whatever he does in practice makes me know that I can do the same thing.”
Greene was typically bullish. Always the showman he predicted the Americans would sweep the medals in the 100m Olympic final as well as win the sprint relay.
“My goal is to go one-two-three and show the world we have the best team and sprinters,” Greene said.
“The only way we lose the 4x100 is if we drop the stick or don’t get it around.”
Of course, Greene is not completely selfless. He fully expects to be the one in the one-two-three.
“One down, one to go,” he said, having ran the 47th wind-legal sub-10 second race of his career.
“I have to go and win in Athens now. That’s my goal. It’s all about the G.O.A.T.” he added, referring to the tattoo on his right biceps which shows a lion’s head with those letters etched into the mane. They stand for Greatest Of All Time.
Fourth-placed Miller and Sydney relay gold medallists John Capel and Bernard Williams are the favourites to fill the places in the six-man 4x100m relay squad
With the trials taking a two-day break before resuming on Thursday evening, the USA has filled its vacancies in 17 of the 38 events scheduled for Athens.
Sunday’s events added 400m hurdlers James Carter (47.68), Sydney gold medalist Angelo Taylor (48.03) and Bennie Brazell (48.05) to the men’s team, running the fastest, third-fastest and fifth-fastest times of the year respectively and eliminating former 2004 world leader Bershawn Jackson in the process.
Sheena Johnson set the fastest time in the world this year – 52.95 – in the women’s 400 hurdles. Brenda Taylor (53.36) and world junior champion Lashinda Demus will join her in Athens.
There was an American record in the women’s triple jump when Tiombe Hurd booked her ticket to the Games with 14.45m in the fourth round of the final, while men’s world long jump champion Dwight Phillips picked himself up from an eighth-place finish in the 100m semi-finals to win his specialist event.
His first leap of 8.28m was enough to win but it was the lowest winning effort at an US Olympic trials since Larry Myricks jumped the same distance at the ‘lame-duck’ trials in 1980, which took place despite President Jimmy Carter’s withdrawal of the American team from the Moscow Games.
The men’s pole vault was a different story, though, as Timothy Mack upset the form book to leapfrog world leader Toby Stevenson into first place. Mack cleared 5.90m as Stevenson bowed out at 5.85m with Derek Miles clearing 5.80m to complete the US trio as 2000 Olympic champion Nick Hysong was eliminated.
Mack attempted to join the six-metre club with a tilt at 6.04 which would have eclipsed Jeff Hartwig’s four-year-old US record of 6.03m. Instead, he will settle for a trip to the Olympics.
