The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 23, 2004, Page 11, Image 11
XXVIII OLYMPIAD
♦
Overshadowed Gatlin wins Olympic 100 in 9.85
By ROB GLOSTER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATHENS, GreCCC — Justin
Gatlin ran the race of his life
Sunday night, barely holding off
the fastest Olympic 100 field in
history to win the gold in 9.85
seconds.
Francis Obikwelu of Portugal
got the silver in 9.86. Defending
champion Maurice Greene won
bronze in 9.87, falling short in his
quest ■ to crown himself the
“greatest sprinter of all time.”
A third American, Shawn
Crawford, was fourth in 9.89. Five
runners broke the 10-second mark,
and another — world champion
Kim Collins — finished in exactly
10 seconds.
It was the closest finish in an
Olympic 100 final since the 1980
Moscow Games, when Allan Wells
of Britain held off Silvio Leonard of
Cuba as the two were timed in
10.25.
Gatlin’s previous personal best
was 9.92. He finished the race
Sunday with his mouth wide open,
then dropped to his knees and
clasped his hands in prayer. Next
he jumped into the stands.
“Tkp rarp unc nvifrntficpnt Tko
only way I knew the race was great
is because I watched it on TV,”
Gatlin said. “I couldn’t even feel
the race. I felt that I was 100 miles
in front of everybody. It was so
close, but that’s what I felt.”
It was the first time in Olympic
history that five men broke 10
seconds in one race. Four did it at
the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Greene was unable to become
the first man since Carl Lewis in
1984 and ‘88 to win back-to-back
Olympic 100s.
“You know what, I think we put
on a great show,” Greene said.
Gatlin, 22, is the youngest
Olympic 100 champion since Jim
Hines in 1968. Gatlin won six
NCAA titles in his two seasons at
Tennessee, then won the 60-meter
title at the world indoor
championships last year. But he had
been overshadowed at the Athens
Games by flamboyant training
partner Crawford.
Crawford gave Gatlin a huge
hug after his victory. Both are
trained by Trevor Graham, the
former mentor of Marion Jones
and Tim Montgomery — who
holds the 100 world record of 9.78,
but did not qualify for the
Olympics and has been charged
with steroid use.
Earlier Sunday night, Gail
Devers’ heartbreak in the Olympic
100-meter hurdles continued as she
was felled by injury just steps into
her first heat.
Devers, 37, who has three
world championships in the event,
pulled up short and screamed as
she slid under the first hurdle. She
sat on the track for about two
minutes, rubbing her left leg and
grimacing.
Devers hurt her leg in practice a
week ago and wore a heavy
bandage during three rounds of the
100 before being eliminated in the
semifinals Saturday.
Her failure Sunday may lead to
second-guessing about Devers’
decision to run in the 100. She took
the third U.S. spot in that event
when Torri Edwards was
suspended for two years for
accidentally ingesting a banned
stimulant.
Devers could have turned down
the spot and focused on the
hurdles, allowing Marion Jones to
try to defend her Olympic title.
Devers holds the U.S. record of
12.37 seconds. She has three
Olympic medals — she won gold
in the 100 in 1992 and 1996, and
was on the victorious 4Q0-meter
relay team in 1996.
But she slammed into the last
hurdle while leading the 1992
Olympic final, crawling to the
finish line in fifth place. In 1996,
she missed an Olympic medal by a
hundredth of a second. In 2000,
she injured her hamstring in the
semifinal and pulled up after five
hurdles.
Also Sunday, Mizuki Noguchi of
Japan won the marathon over the
ancient course that gave the race its
name. Deena Kastor was third,
giving the United States its first
marathon medal since Joan Benoit’s
gold in Los Angeles 20 years ago.
Two Swedish men won gold
medals in field events. Stefan Holm
won the high jump — American
Matt Hemingway got silver — and
Christian Olsson was the winner in
the triple jump.
Adrian Annus of Hungary won
the gold medal in the hammer
throw. Greece’s Fani Halkia
thrilled the sold-out crowd by
setting an Olympic record of 52.77
seconds in her 400-meter hurdles
semifinal.
Befitting this drug-plagued year
for the sport, international and
Russian Olympic officials said that
the first woman to win a gold medal
at Ancient Olympia — a Russian
shot putter — is under investigation
for a positive test.
Irina Korzhanenko tested
positive for the steroid stanozolol
after Wednesday’s competition,
Russian Olympic Committee
spokesman Gennady Shvets said.
The backup B sample was being
analyzed to verify the result. '
Gatlin also has had problems
with drugs.
He tested positive for an
amphetamine at the 2001 U.S.
junior championships. The drug
was contained in prescription
medication Gatlin had been taking
for 10 years to treat a form of
attention deficit disorder.
The International Association of
Athletics Federations gave him
early reinstatement from a two-year
ban in July 2002. The LAAF said a
second violation would lead to a
life ban.
Gatlin, a Brooklyn, N.Y., native
who now lives in Raleigh, N.C.,
said his victory was just the first of
what he hopes will be many historic
accomplishments.
“I said it was going to be the
most exciting race in the world,
and it was,” he said. “This is what I
train for, that’s why I shoveled the
snow off North Carolina^tracks.
That’s why I’m here. I’m here to
win the gold medal.”
i
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gold medalist Justin Gatlin, right, and bronze medalist Maurice Greene of the U.S. parade with American flags after the 100m at the 2004
Olympic Games Sunday in Athens, Greece. Gatlin surpassed his career best of 9.92 seconds to best the fastest field in Olympic history.
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