Olympic Times – Sports Daily

Some of the planet’s premier runners, along with a contingent of Great Britain’s Olympic team, are set to warm up for the Beijing 2008 Games by competing first at the Aviva London Grand Prix July 25-26.
One of a series of summer competitions being staged by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the London Grand Prix will gather more than three dozen British Olympic team members at the Crystal Palace, according to the official website of UK Athletics.

Phillips Idowu, winner of the triple jump event at the 2008 British Olympic trials with a distance of 17.58 meters, will take part in the Grand Prix triple jump event.

Christine Ohuruogu, the women’s 200-meter race winner at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, will also attend as part of preparations for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. She was quoted on the official website of European Athletics as saying: “Nothing will prepare me better for Beijing than a warm-up at the Aviva London Grand Prix in front of a home crowd.”

Many international track and field stars are set to meet at the Grand Prix, just two weeks before the Olympics kick off in the Chinese capital on August 8. Among the most closely watched competitions in London will be the men’s 100- and 200-meter races. The three fastest men in the world – Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt – are all scheduled to converge on the Grand Prix.

Powell, the former 100-meter event world record holder, will compete against his strongest rival, Tyson Gay. Gay, a triple gold medalist at 2007 World Championships in Osaka, was quoted on the official website of UK Athletics as saying: “London will be very crucial for me – it is one of the biggest meets of the year right now and that is where it is going down between myself and Asafa. He has the title of being the world record holder and I have the title of being the world champion and I think that is really good for the sport.”

The world number one in men’s long-distance running, Kenenisa Bekele, will compete in the 5000-meter race in London. Bekele won the 5000-meter race at the London Grand Prix in 2005, but was defeated by Bernard Lagat in 2006 and was absent in 2007.

The first woman who vaulted over 5.00 meters, Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva, will compete in the pole vault event in London before traveling to Beijing.

An impressive performance for an around –the-world audience is set to be staged in London.

source: beijing2008.cn

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt laid down another marker for the Beijing Olympics when he ran the fastest 200 metres of the year so far at the Athens Grand Prix on Sunday.
The 21-year-old, who broke the 100 metres world record at the end of May, clocked 19.67 seconds, cruising home to a comfortable victory.
It was a personal best for Bolt and the fifth fastest time ever over the distance.
However, he again played down suggestions that he would soon break Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old record of 19.32.
“It is a very hard record to get but someone will take it one day and hopefully I will be that person – maybe next year,” he said.
Cuba’s Daryon Robles also sent out a warning for the Olympics, clocking 13.05 in the 110-metres hurdles. It was well off his world record 12.87, set last month, but still the third-fastest time of the year so far.
“I felt really good. I am working day after day to fulfil my personal objective for the Olympics,” he said.
“I don’t want to think too far ahead yet. I honestly believe it is a question of getting to the (Olympic) final because it is, of course, a desire and dream of every athlete to get an Olympic medal.”

STIRRING FINISH
Derrick Atkins of the Bahamas took the 100 metres for the second year running, clocking 10.10, while Louis van Zyl produced a stirring finish to plough past the Americans Danny MacFarlane and Reuben McCoy to take the 400 metres hurdles.
The South African’s winning time of 48.22 was shy of American Kerron Clement’s 47.79, the best so far this year, but there was a season’s best in the high jump where Sweden’s Stefan Holm cleared 2.37 metres.
The 2007 triple jump world champion Nelson Evora produced a leap of 17.23 to see off Olympic silver medallist four years ago Marian Oprea and the Cuban Arnie David Girat while Louis Tsatoumas gave the home crowd something to cheer when he leapt 8.44 metres, the third best long jump of the year.
Veronica Campbell-Brown made up for disappointment in the same meeting in 2007, winning the women’s 100 metres in 10.92.
The Jamaican said: “I am satisfied with my race. I have been training very hard and I hope I will stay healthy to achieve my goal in Beijing. I adore Athens. I run my best races here.”
Sanya Richards of the US missed out by 0.03 seconds on the fastest time of the year in the 400 metres but still won with something to spare in 49.86.
In the women’s javelin, world record holder Osleidys Menendez of Cuba had to settle for second behind the Czech world champion Barbora Spotakova who won with a throw of 63.70 metres.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Usain Bolt has his sights on the 200-meter world record, too.

The Jamaican, who set the 100 record of 9.72 seconds in New York on May 31, will skip that race Sunday at the star-studded Tsiklitiria meet.
“In Athens, I am running my favorite event to see how far my body will go,” Bolt said Thursday. “One day I will get the record … eventually. My aim is to improve on my personal record.”

Bolt is still not sure if he will compete in both the 100 and 200 at the Beijing Olympics.

“This is a decision my coach and I will make at the last moment. I have two more meetings to run in Europe (before the Olympics) and we’ll see how I feel after those,” Bolt said.

Bolt’s best in the 200 is 19.75 seconds, achieved at altitude last year. He has run a world-best 19.83 this year.

He hopes to win at least two gold medals in Beijing, one being in the 400-meter relay, where Jamaica missed the final in last year’s World Championships.

“Last year, we had a chance to win, but we messed up the baton change,” Bolt said. “If we can pass it around carefully this time, I am certain we will win.”

Other world record holders who will compete at the Tsiklitiria include Dayron Robles of Cuba in the 110 hurdles, Kenyan-born Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar in the 3,000 steeplechase and Osleidys Menendez of Cuba in the women’s javelin.

The list of stars also includes defending Olympic champions Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic in the 400 hurdles, Ezekiel Kemboi of Kenya in the steeplechase, Stefan Holm of Sweden in the high jump and Christian Olsson of Sweden in the triple jump and Tim Mack of the United States in the pole vault.

A total of 250 athletes will take part in 17 events Sunday.

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Tanzanian marathon hero John Stephen Akhwari said here that he concerned the lack of fund to develop his country’s athletics.

Akhwari, the most famous last place finisher in an Olympic Games marathon, was paying his second visit to the Olympic host city while telling his concerns.

“Lack of fund is the biggest problem for us right now,” said the 70-year-old. “We cannot afford building sport schools. Besides, we also lack fund to pay for the students’ accommodation, training and tuition.”

“If only we had enough fund to bring up more young talents, we would have created more good results in world class competition,” said Akhwari.

Tanzania has yet to win a marathon medal at any Olympic Games after Akhwari first represented his country in the Mexico City Games in 1968 when he dragged his injured leg to finish last, with four hours 30 minutes, in the marathon race. The winner, Mamo Wolde from Ethiopia, took the race in 2:20.26.

But he became one of the most memorable figures in the Olympic history with his persistence and his word.

“My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me to finish,” said the then 30-year-old athlete.

Despite his last finish, Akhwari was honored as a national hero by Tanzania in 1983.

He was chosen to carry the Olympic torch in April this year in the Beijing Olympic torch relay Dar es Salaam leg.

from: xinhuanet.com

Javier Gomez Noya fought a six-year battle with Spain’s sporting authorities over a heart condition and he is now favorite to win a triathlon gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
“I have overcome a lot of obstacles. Some people have helped me, others haven’t. I can’t forget what has happened but I want to look forward, I don’t want wars with anyone,” the 25-year-old world champion told Reuters in an interview.
Gomez Noya’s problems started after a routine medical test by the Spanish Sports Council (CSD). In 2000 they withdrew his international licence due to what he describes as “an abnormal heart valve”.
With the help of independent consultants he won back his right to compete overseas in November 2003, just in time to win the world under-23 title in New Zealand.
He failed to make Spain’s 2004 Olympic squad and in 2005 the CSD decided to bar the Swiss-born athlete from competing at home and abroad until February 2006.
“I don’t think the Spanish Triathlon Federation and the CSD did well in my case. But we have got over our problems and I don’t think there is any point trawling through it all again,” Gomez Noya said.
“I have to have routine check-ups every three to six months. While the cardiologists think I can compete there is no problem.
“I didn’t consider quitting. Once the cardiologists said I could run, I decided to fight.”

Unbeatable
Since his return to competition, Gomez Noya has been all but unbeatable.
He won the triathlon World Cup series in 2006 and 2007, and leads the 2008 series after winning all four major races he entered, including the World Championships this month.
He was runner-up in the 2007 World Championships although he finished the year ranked No 1.
Gomez Noya was born in Basel, Switzerland, and was only months old when his parents returned to their native Galicia. He started out playing soccer and switched to swimming before getting into triathlon by chance when he was 15.
Friends at his local swimming club in Ferrol encouraged him to enter a competition.
“It caught my attention, the sport as much as the atmosphere. I saw I had a lot of room to improve but that it matched my characteristics well,” he said. “Although I come from the world of swimming … my strong point is the running race and it is the one I enjoy the most. It’s where I have had a slight edge over my rivals.”
Typical training sessions last between three and seven hours a day, depending on the proximity to a race, and need to exercise three different sets of muscle groups because of triathlon’s make-up of swimming, cycling and running.
The sport’s growing popularity – it is generally reckoned to have originated in the 1970s – won it acceptance into the Olympics for the first time in 2000 and Gomez Noya says people should not be put off by its reputation as a tough sport.
“I think it is made into something of a myth how hard the sport is. It’s not as tough as the marathon or cycling, where you have to spend six hours on a bike day after day.
“It’s more attractive than them because you do three different disciplines. It’s a young sport, and a clean one, and it’s doing well. We hope it carries on growing.”

Sporting idols
One of the problems holding back triathlon’s development, particularly in Gomez Noya’s home country, is the lack of media exposure.
“It’s difficult in this country … there isn’t a deep sporting culture,” he said. “The priority is given to football and in other sports to the ‘idols’ of the moment such as Fernando Alonso in Formula One or Rafa Nadal in tennis.
“People follow their idols rather than the sports themselves, which is bad for the rest of us.”
Gomez Noya, an admirer of cyclist Lance Armstrong and marathon king Haile Gebrselassie, would help to raise the profile of triathlon at home with a podium finish in Beijing.
“It’s an error to count on winning a medal in the triathlon. With one race every four years anything can happen, especially in a sport as tactical as this where it isn’t always the strongest who wins,” he said.
“The pressure could translate into a positive thing. They are my first Games and I just hope my novice status doesn’t work against me.”

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Usain Bolt of Jamaica set a world record in the men’s 100m, clocking 9.72 seconds at the Reebok Grand Prix meeting at Icahn Stadium in New York on Saturday.
Bolt bettered the mark of 9.74 set by countryman Asafa Powell last September.
The 21-year-old, the 200m silver medalist at the world championships, dashed out perfectly at the start after a false start and touched the finishing tape ahead of 100m world champion Tyson Gay.
Gay finished second in 9.85, with his fellow American Darvis Patton a distant third in 10.07.
“It was a great start,” Bolt said, “I’ve been working hard at that. I gave you what you wanted.”
Earlier this month, Bolt stunned the athletics world by running a 9.76 in Jamaica, the second fastest time ever registered and only his third competitive race over the distance.

Evolution of men’s 100m world records

10.6 seconds, Donald Lippincott, United States, July 6, 1912
10.4, Charles Paddock, United States, April 23, 1921
10.3, Percy Williams, Canada, August 9, 1930
10.2, Jesse Owens, United States, June 20, 1936
10.1, Willie Williams, United States, August 3, 1956
10.0, Armin Hary, West Germany, June 21, 1960
9.99, Jim Hines, United States, June 20, 1968
9.95 (electronic), Jim Hines, October 14, 1968
9.93, Calvin Smith, United States, July 3, 1983
9.92, Carl Lewis, United States, September 24, 1988
9.90, Leroy Burrell, United States, June 14, 1991
9.86, Carl Lewis, United States, August 25, 1991
9.85, Leroy Burrell, United States, July 6, 1994
9.84, Donovan Bailey, Canada, July 27, 1996
9.79, Maurice Greene, United States, June 16, 1999
9.77, Asafa Powell, Jamaica, June 14, 2005
9.77, Justin Gatlin, United States, May 12, 2006
9.77, Asafa Powell, Jamaica, June 11, 2006
9.74, Asafa Powell, Jamaica, September 9, 2007
9.72, Usain Bolt, Jamaica, May 31, 2008

from: beijing2008.cn

Cuban athletics will make a superior performance during the Beijing Olympic Games, Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor said Thursday.

Sotomayor said during declarations to the press in the first Ibero American Summit of Physic Education and Student Sports being held here that hurdler Dayron Robles is a great figure in that sport.

“Although the presence of the Chinese Liu Xiang, Robles has great opportunities of winning the 110 meter with hurdles,” said Sotomayor.

Sotomayor also mentioned as possible winners in Beijing 2008 to Yargelis Savigne who is world champion in triple jump and the hammer thrower Yipsi Moreno.

About the javelin thrower Osleydis Menendez, Sotomayor said that she is recovered and that she only needs to be ready physically and mentally.

“The Cuban athletes’ preparation has been decorous. The season for those who have competed has been good and in the same way the results,” Sotomayor said.

“The area of jumps and throws will be much over the trail,” Sotomayor said.

In Athens 2004, Cuba won five medals in athletics, namely, two gold, one silver and two bronze.

Usain Bolt has admitted he needs to work on his start and finish in the 100 metres, yet the 21-year-old Jamaican is eager to test himself against world champion Tyson Gay in the Reebok grand prix on Saturday.
Bolt, world silver medalist behind Gay in the 200 metres, stunned athletics by running 9.76 seconds, the second-fastest 100 metres, at the Jamaica International on May 3 and will face the American over the distance for the first time on Saturday.
“My start is the toughest part of my race,” the 1.96m tall Bolt told reporters on Thursday. “I think that’s because I’m kind of tall. I’m working hard and hopefully I’ll get it right.”
Bolt’s coach Glen Mills said his height worked against him at the start, but his ability as a 200 metre runner to sustain top speed made him a 100-metres force to be reckoned with.
“He’s never going to be a great starter at that height,” Mills said. “You just want to be in the race for the first 30 meters….to be in striking distance and take it from there.
“He has to work more than say a more explosive guy like Asafa (Powell) or Gay. He has got to do a lot of pushing off that track to get to top speed, like getting a car revved up. But once he gets there he’s as good as anybody out there.”
Bolt was also aware he needed to keep his concentration throughout the race and not ease off before the finish line.
“I was just looking to see what time I was running,” he said of his run in Jamaica. “I wasn’t expecting to run that time. So when I got near to the line I was just looking. I wasn’t really slowing up, I was just looking at the clock. It is a bad habit.”

IMPROVING SPEED

Bolt has been running the 100 metres to improve his speed for the 200 and the results have been impressive. He came within two-hundredths of a second of compatriot Powell’s world record of 9.74 in just his third competitive race at the distance and was now looking forward to his showdown with Gay.

Yelena Soboleva broke her own world record in winning the 1,500m title at the World Indoor Championships on Sunday.
The Russian finished in 3 minutes, 57.71 seconds to shave 0.34 seconds off her former mark, heading off compatriot Yuliya Fomenko (3:59.41) and Gelete Burka of Ethiopia (3:59.75).
It was the second time this winter she improved on her own record, finishing in 3 minutes, 57.71 seconds to shave .34 off the old mark. The title and record earned Soboleva US$90,000.
Maria Mutola missed out on a record eighth indoor gold medal, finishing third in the women’s 800m behind winner Tamsyn Lewis of Australia.
At 35 and running in her last indoor championships, Mutola ran a poor tactical race and let Lewis sweep past her on the inside with 300m to go.
Lewis won in 2 minutes, 2.57 seconds, edging Tetiana Petlyuk of the Ukraine by 0.09 seconds.
“I should have done better,” said Mutola, who finished in 2:02.97.
Lewis said she couldn’t get around the pack from the outside, so she made a move on the inside to win.
“I got caught by surprise,” Mutola said. But no one was more surprised than Lewis, the 29-year-old who won her first major title.
“I was just hoping to make the final. I did win, didn’t I?” Lewis said. “Maria is a star. I always wanted to get close to her.”
Mutola, who won her first gold in 1993, retired from indoor competition after the race, but the Mozambique runner will now focus on winning a second Olympic gold in Beijing.
In the women’s 400m, Olesya Zykina of Russia won in 51.09 — just 0.01 second ahead of teammate Natalya Nazarova, with Shareese Woods of the United States third.
Nazarova won gold in the 4x400m relay for her seventh gold overall to tie Mutola.
In the last event, Blanca Vlasic of Croatia won her 22nd straight high jump competition, defeating Olympic champion Elena Slesarenko of Russia and Vita Palomar of the Ukraine.
Bryan Clay of the United States earlier won gold in the heptathlon after Olympic champion Roman Sebrle withdrew because of injury.
Clay opened with a win in the 60m and won three more events, scoring a personal best 6,371 points for his second world title.
He could have set a new points record by running under 2 minutes, 45.47 seconds in the final 1,000-meter event but struggled to a last-place time of 2:55.64 — still a season best.
For the women, with sprinters Veronica Campbell and Allyson Felix in absentia, the only running event that was at anything resembling full strength was the women’s 1500, in which Yelena Soboleva of Russia got more than a measure of revenge over Maryam Yusuf Jamal, the Bahrainian who beat her in Osaka.

Self-belief comes naturally to Ato Boldon, a four-time Olympic medalist, who says he was born to run, and who will serve as a sports analyst for NBC at the upcoming Beijing Games.
Success builds confidence, of course, and the 34-year-old Trinidad and Tobago (TT) sprinter has had a good run. Starting his sporting life as a soccer player he switched to athletics and competed in his first of four Olympics aged 18, in Barcelona.
A world champion in the 200 m, Boldon has only been beaten by his American rival Maurice Greene in terms of sub-10 second 100 m races. His career segued into politics after retiring from the track and he became an opposition senator in 2006, gained a pilot’s license and commentated for Britain’s BBC, the United States’ CBS and NBC.
He has produced and directed a documentary about TT’s qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He also coaches the Saudi Arabian athletics team and is part owner and writer for a leading athletics website.
“I approach everything I undertake as though I were born to do it — it removes the fear, because as humans we often believe we aren’t capable or aren’t good enough,” he said in an exchange of e-mails from the United States, where he lives.
The self-assured US-based sociology major is quick to offer his views on a range of sport-related subjects.
For instance, though he was accused and cleared in 2001 of using the performance-enhancing drug ephedrine (found in common flu remedies, Boldon had been treating a cold), he is virulently anti-drugs.

“Sport should clean up and Marion (Jones) is the latest and best example of the fact that no matter how high you get, if you get there illegally the skeletons in your closet may still come calling some day.”
He can also be diplomatic. Director Stephen Spielberg’s recent resignation from the Olympic ceremonies creative team drew a tempered reaction.
“Everyone has their own personal outlook, and I respect that. Lots of countries that will remain nameless have had human rights violations, but somehow the media focuses on the ones they choose to. Sports and politics will always be intrinsically linked because they both evoke such passion in people.”
As for China’s organization of the Games, Boldon says he’s expecting fireworks at the opening ceremony, even without Spielberg.
“(The Chinese) invented them I think they’re going to do a fantastic job of hosting and surprise a lot of people. They are perfectionists and they will host the Games as such.”
Regarding his new role at the Olympics as a broadcaster, Boldon said he will rely on natural ability, preparation and timing, as befits a top-rate athlete.
“The true art is knowing when to shut up. You can talk through certain things and ruin the moment forever. The best times during a track and field broadcast are when nothing is said, sometimes, like before the gun sounds to start the 100m dash final, or after a huge victory.
“Apart from that, it’s about conveying your passion and finding the balance between talking to an audience that knows the sport well and to someone who has never ever seen it.”
He says the highlight of the Games will likely be in the pool and on the track. He rates the US track team as the best ever and says he is looking forward to a Jamaica versus US duel in the sprint and relay events.
Pressed for a possible lowlight, he pointed to another potential drug scandal comparable to what happened with disgraced Canadian 100 m runner Ben Johnson at Seoul 1988.
Though Boldon has had his fair share of success, he has also dealt with disaster. A car crash in 2002 practically ended his career as a competitive runner and the fallout over how his case was handled by TT police led him to make some bitter comments about his country.
But Boldon does not regret missing out on Olympic gold, having racked up three bronze and one silver in the 100 m at Sydney 2000. It turns out his favorite sporting memory isn’t an individual medal. Instead, it’s winning silver in the 100m relay at the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada.
“It was a very young team that I led and we almost became the best in the world. No one foresaw it except us four and no one could have predicted it.”
Asked whether it would be a bittersweet experience commenting on the action rather than being part of it in Beijing, Boldon said he is ready for a new challenge.
“I had my time and I retired when I wanted, at 30. I was on the podium four times, at four Olympics, and even though I never got Olympic gold my life was forever changed by being on that stage and by being able to represent my country.”

North Carolina – They are rivals, both seeking gold at the Beijing Olympics, but American hurdler Allen Johnson and China’s top athletics hope Liu Xiang are also friends.
“When I see him run well, I am genuinely happy for him, and I feel like when I run well, he is happy for me,” Johnson, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist and seven-times indoor and outdoor world champion, told Reuters.
“We both respect and admire one another,” Johnson said of the Chinese world record holder and 2004 Olympic champion whom he first met in 2001.
The language barrier prevents anything more than limited conversations, but there are other ways expressing their respect, Johnson, a three-times Olympian, said.
“There have been a couple of times I have been in races (with him) when I didn’t run so well,” the 37-year-old American said.
“He kind of patted me on the back like it was going to be all right. Don’t worry about it. It was just one race.
“Even though those weren’t the words that he said, that was the body language,” Johnson said.
The two will renew their friendship at the world indoor championships in Valencia, Spain from March 7-9. Both will compete in the 60 meters hurdles.
Johnson finished second to countryman David Oliver in the U.S. championships last weekend.
Johnson believes Liu is the man to beat at the Olympics.
“I guess you have to go with the defending world champion, the home favorite,” Johnson said.
“He is very good. He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. He is very consistent … If you aren’t ready, he is going to whip you.
“I couldn’t imagine what he goes through. I think he has handled it well so far, but Beijing is going to be totally different. I can only imagine all the people will be pulling him in a million different directions.”

from: chinadaily.com.cn 

Betrayed finally by the body which once hurtled along a track faster than any man in the world, Maurice Greene reached journey’s end this month.
At the age of 33, the 2000 Sydney Olympics 100 meters champion conceded that he could not get in shape in time for the Beijing Games and announced his retirement.
“I was getting these little nagging injuries that have just stopped me from training the way that I need to,” Greene told Reuters in a telephone interview from Los Angeles this week.
“It’s a mental battle trying to come back from injuries and I don’t feel like having that mental battle with myself.”
American hegemony in the men’s 100 metres has been taken for granted since the rebirth of the Olympic Games in 1896. In reality, there have been lulls; notably in the 1920s and 1970s and again in the 1990s, the decade when Greene’s raw talent first became apparent in his home town of Kansas City.
After Carl Lewis had run his last great race at the 1991 Tokyo world championships, Linford Christie won the 1992 Olympic title for Britain in Barcelona.
Christie captured the 1993 world title and was then succeeded as world and Olympic champion by another Jamaican-born sprinter, Canadian Donovan Bailey.
Meanwhile, Greene was eliminated in the quarter-finals at the 1995 Gothenburg world championships and, hampered by a hamstring injury, failed to qualify for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics team.

Maurice Greene, former US world and Olympic champion in the 100m and 200m sprints said he would not be competing in the 2008 Games and that his future would probably be in coaching. The veteran Greene, who won the 100m and 200m gold in Sydney in 2000, said that he was sad he would not race here in August but felt the United States had a worthy successor in Tyson Gay

HARD PATH
Greene came up the hard way. In Kansas City he worked in fast food outlets, emptied trucks and tore tickets at a movie theatre. Frustrated by his lack of progress in athletics, he decided in 1996 to drive to Los Angeles with his father Ernest to train with John Smith, by common consent the best sprint coach in the world.
“I just told myself I needed a change,” Greene recalled. “If I really wanted to do something I had to go to someplace else. I decided to go to John Smith.
“He worked me very hard. He asked me what I wanted to do and I wanted to be the best in the world.”
Training with the equally competitive Trinidadian Ato Boldon, who was to finish second to the American in Sydney, Greene set out to attain his goal.
“We knew if we both wanted to be successful we had to work together to get to where we wanted to be,” Greene said.
“He taught me things and I learned a lot from him and we began to study the sport more and learn more things about the sport. We became a dynamic duo.”
Greene’s breakthrough came in 1997 when he won the world 100 metres title in Athens. In the following year he set a world indoor 60 metres record of 6.39 seconds which still stands and then came his golden year of 1999 when he clocked a world 100 record of 9.79 seconds in Athens and the first world 100-200 double in Seville.
“Everybody was talking about U.S. sprint domination being over,” Greene said. “As a U.S. athlete I don’t like that kind of talk.”

JOHNSON TIME
The 100 record held particular significance for Greene.
Bailey’s mark of 9.84 set at the Atlanta Games was the official mark. But everybody knew that Ben Johnson had clocked 9.79 at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, a record that was never ratified after the Canadian’s positive test for steroids.
“I started to really study races and that’s when I really started to piece together how to run that sort of time,” Greene said.
At the turn of the century, Greene was at the top of the world, a position confirmed in 2000 when he won the Sydney Olympic 100 and anchored the 4×100 relay team to victory.
Then came the 2001 Edmonton world 100 final which developed into what Greene believes was his best and also his most frustrating performance.
Greene hobbled over the line after sustaining quadricep and hamstring injuries. Incredibly he still clocked 9.82 seconds, only 0.08 seconds outside Jamaican Asafa Powell’s current record.
“If you look at the race closely, at 65 metres there was a grimace on my face. I just hobbled the rest of the way. The good Lord let me finish that race and I still ran 9.82,” he said.
Asked what the time would have been had he not been injured, Greene replied: “I would say around 9.6.”
Injuries came increasingly to define Greene’s life, although there was one last chance of glory at the 2004 Athens Olympics when he believes he should have beaten compatriot Justin Gatlin.
Greene eased up in the semi-finals and paid for a slow time by getting lane seven in the final, won by Gatlin ahead of Portuguese Francis Obikwelu with Greene third in the closest Olympic three-way 100 metres finish.
“I should have run all the way through instead of easing up. I would have had a better lane and then I could have felt what was going on in the middle of the track,” he said.
“I basically ran that race blind. I’ve always said I messed that race up, I threw away my gold medal.”
Greene’s record stands comparison with any of his predecessors and his tally of 52 sub-10 second marks, far ahead of Powell’s 33, shows his remarkable consistency.
Asked recently who he considered the greatest 100 metres sprinter ever, Powell did not name Lewis or 1936 Olympic quadruple gold medalist Jesse Owens.
Instead he chose Greene “because of his technical abilities and his consistency over the years”.
“I’m flattered that he would say that about me,” Greene responded. “I would want to believe, hope to believe, that I was up there at the top.”

from: chinadaily.com.cn

Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar shattered the world indoor record for the women’s two-mile race at the Boston Indoor Games on Saturday, while Australian Craig Mottram clocked the fastest 3,000m time in the United States.
Meseret Defar, the 5,000m Olympic and world champion and outdoor world record holder, clocked 9:10.50 to blitz the previous two-mile mark of 9:23.38 by American Regina Jacobs here in 2002.
New Zealander Kim Smith, who trains in nearby Rhode Island, finished second in 9:13.94.
Defar, the 2007 IAAF female athlete of the year, said there was still room for improvement.
“I’m not running today 100 percent,” Defar told reporters. “I could have run faster.”
Mottram, aiming to make up for the disappointment of last year’s world championships, cruised to an impressive 7:34.50 in the men’s 3,000m — the fastest time recorded over the distance in the United States, indoors or out, and an Australian national record.
Mottram bettered Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie’s 2004 indoor U.S. all-comers record of 7:35.24 and topped the outdoor best of 7:35.44 run in 2005 by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge. He also eclipsed his national record of 7:39.24 set at the same meet last year.
Markos Geneti of Ethiopia was a distant second in 7:41.81.
“Had I known it was Haile’s I would have tried a little bit harder,” Mottram said with a chuckle. “He’s definitely the greatest distance runner of all time. That’s one record I’ll be proud of.”
Mottram will face double world champion Bernard Lagat in the mile at next week’s Millrose Games in New York.
World 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia shook off recurring cramp to win the women’s 3,000m with a 2008 world-leading time of 8:33.37. Her sister, Ejegayehu Dibaba, was second in 8:36.59.
There was disappointment for Olympic and world heptathlon gold medallist Carolina Kluft of Sweden, who could finish no better than third in the long jump with a best of 6.34m.
“I’m very disappointed today,” Kluft said. “It was just one of those bad days where everything goes wrong. I had no feeling. No rhythm,” she added.
American outdoor record holder Jenn Stuczynski returned from Achilles and back problems to win the women’s pole vault at 4.60 metres but failed in three attempts at a U.S. indoor record of 4.82.

from: chinadaily.com.cn