In a meet full of records, it was only fitting that the final day of action at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials saw its own share of all-time bests.
Florida State standout Walter Dix and 2004 Olympic gold medalist Shawn Crawford each broke Lorenzo Daniel’s 20-year-old Hayward Field record of 19.87 seconds, with Dix out-leaning Crawford by five thousandths of a second, 19.852 to 19.857, each legally a 19.86, and earning them a trip to Beijing.
Dix ran down Crawford on the homestretch, passing him as Crawford tightened up at the end.
“I knew he was running hard so when I came through I just tried to relax and he tightened up a little bit,” Dix said. “I won it by relaxing.”
Dix also placed second in the 100m last week and said running eight races over the course of the Trials took a lot out of him.
“That was hard,” he said. “There’s a lot of guys in that 100 who doubled too. There are a lot of athletes around the world who don’t have to do this, they don’t have to run four rounds for each event.”
Crawford confirmed Dix’s view of how the race developed.
“I messed up on the straight. I broke down so bad,” he said. “I just got ran down. I have to work on that finish. But I got on the podium and we got another chance to go do it in Beijing, so I’m happy I made the team and get to go represent the country.”
As the two leaned at the finish line, Crawford said he thought he might have won.
“I kind of thought I did with the dip but it is kind of hard when somebody comes up and you are side-by-side for the photo finish. I knew I had made the team, though. I was happy I made the team.
Wallace Spearmon made up at least five meters in the homestretch to pass Rodney Martin for third.
With the lane outside of him open because of a Xavier Carter scratch, Spearmon said he didn’t know how he was positioned until he came off the curve with 100m to go.
“I kept looking around me, because I was basically running blind,” he said. “When we came off the turn everyone was ahead of me and I thought, ‘Oh no, here I am again. I’ve got to catch up.’ I dug deep to catch everyone and unfortunately for Rodney Martin I caught him.
“I’m very excited. Words can’t describe what I feel right now.”
Spearmon finished in 19.90, while Martin was also under 20 seconds, but off the Olympic team, in 19.99.
Charles Clark, Rubin Williams and Bernard Williams finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
Carter, who has run the third-fastest 200m in history, a 19.63 in 2006, scratched out of the final with pain and swelling in his left ankle, the result of bone chips and a bone spur, according to his agent, Mark Bloch.
Gay out two weeks, expected to race in three
American 100m record holder Tyson Gay is expected to miss 12 to 14 days of full training after an MRI on Saturday showed a mild strain in his left thigh, his manager said in a release provided by the USATF. He will be able to engage in “active rest” during that time before resuming full training.
He is scheduled to compete in one pre-Olympics race, held in London on July 25.
Gay won the 100m last weekend in 9.68, the fastest time run in any conditions. He won both the 100m and 200m at the World Championships in 2007.
He injured the leg in Saturday’s quarterfinal round.
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