Gay wins 100 at Olympic trials with wind-aided 9.68
By MICHELLE VOEPEL
The Kansas City Star
EUGENE, Ore. | The wind meant it was not a world record. But that didn’t keep it from being an amazing feat.
Tyson Gay ran the fastest time ever in the 100 meters — 9.68 seconds — Sunday at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials. The wind reading of 4.1 made it well over the legal limit, so Usain Bolt’s 9.72, run last month, remains the world record.
But here at Hayward Field, Gay and the other Olympic 100 qualifiers — Walter Dix (9.80) and Darvis Patton (9.84) — made a statement about how great the marquee race in the Beijing Games will be.
“I wasn’t disappointed,” Gay said on the wind reading. “I was more focused on making the team.”
Saturday, Gay broke Maurice Greene’s American record by running a 9.77 in the quarterfinals. He said Sunday that race actually felt faster than the final.
“That’s because relaxation is the key to success in track and field, and (Saturday) I was totally relaxed,” he said. “I may have pressed a little bit today. But at the same time, the wind was pretty strong, so that’s why the time was faster.”
Actually, Gay was almost too
relaxed in his preliminary race Saturday. He mistook the finish line and started shutting down too early. As he realized his mistake, the field caught up, and he finished in a pack.
He nearly burst into tears after crossing the line, fearing he’d missed advancing because of his error. But he had finished fourth and moved on. Since then, it’s been full speed ahead for Gay, who is coached by veteran sprinter Jon Drummond.
“I just made a mental mistake,” he said of the near-disastrous prelim. “I talked to Drummond and he basically said, ‘Champions don’t do that. Next time you step on the track, you look at the clock, you see the line. Look at it, and that’s what you run to.’ ”
Gay ran a 9.85 Sunday in his semifinal round. That set up the last race of the trials’ first weekend, and it more than surpassed expectations.
“I didn’t even realize the time,” Patton said.
“You blink, and it’s over. I was just happy I was in third place.”
The sprinters were asked whether they thought their rivals elsewhere — particularly in Jamaica, where Bolt is from — would take special notice of Sunday’s results here.
“I think it’s going to shake the world up a little bit,” Patton said. “It will make a little noise.”
Both Gay and Patton attended junior college in Kansas; Gay at Barton County and Patton at Garden City. Patton, a Dallas native, went on to TCU.
Gay, who is from Lexington, Ky., then competed for Arkansas, where he won the NCAA outdoor 100 title in 2004. Last year, Gay really stepped forward as the world’s top sprinter when he won the 100, 200 and was part of the winning 400 relay team at the World Championships.
Gay, 25, wore a blue uniform with red and white markings Sunday; it was designed as a tribute to legendary track star Jesse Owens.
The last time a man ran a 100 time nearly this low was in 1996, when Obadele Thompson of Barbados clocked a 9.69 in El Paso, Texas. The tail wind there, though, was even stronger: 5.0. Thompson said he was quite sore after that race.
Gay acknowledged Sunday that his body was feeling the effort of his 9.77 and 9.68 on back-to-back days. Although he joked the victory lap might have been what wore him out more.
“You can only celebrate for today,” he said. “And tomorrow I have to work on getting my body back right.”
•LOCAL CONNECTIONS: Kansas’ Crystal Manning finished eighth in the women’s triple jump at 43 feet, 10 inches, and Kansas State’s Donniece Parrish did not advance from the preliminaries of the women’s 400 meters.
KU’s Jordan Scott qualified for the men’s pole-vault final but had to scratch because of injury.
Best in the 100 meters
Although it was wind-aided, Tyson Gay has a better time than his two top rivals who are expected to compete for an Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters.
9.68
Tyson Gay
United States
June 29, 2008
9.72
Usain Bolt
Jamaica
May 31, 2008
9.74
Asafa Powell
Jamaica
Sept. 9, 2007
To reach Mechelle Voepel, sports reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4351 or send e-mail to mvoepel@kcstar.com
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