With Michael Johnson’s retirement in 2000 after winning the last two gold medals in the men’s 400m, the event was looking for a new master. And there was no need to look past the city limits of Waco, Texas, the city south of Dallas where both Johnson and Jeremy Wariner had both fine-tuned their craft of running the one-lap race.
With a stunning 44.00 win, his eighth sub-45 clocking of the season, the 20-year-old Wariner added his name to the long list of Americans who have amassed nineteen gold medals during the twenty-five editions of the Summer Games.
There was none of the gutsy front-running tactics from this past weekend as Wariner ran a noticeably more conservative race than he had in the previous two rounds, allowing Otis Harris, running on his outside, to dictate the tempo for the first 200 metres.
But the lean Texan never allowed his teammate to gain more than the original lane stagger through the first half of the race.
In the final turn, Wariner accelerated and moved even with Harris as the straightaway lay ahead, and then he powered home for the win.
"It was a very exciting race for me," said Wariner. "Finishing one-two-three is really amazing."
Harris followed in second with a PB 44.16, with Derrick Brew completing the American medal sweep with 44.42. Americans hadn't swept all medals at the event since Seoul 1988 where Steve Lewis, Butch Reynolds and Danny Everett took the honours.
Otis said: "It's a blessing and a real privilege to be in this race. we feel really proud and I hope Americans are as proud as we are of the clean sweep."
Wariner undoubtedly saw the final time on the stadium clock with a feeling of Schadenfreude, as a sub-44 performance would have added an extra glow to the gold-medal performance. And as a matter of statistical fact, it was the first Olympic final not to have gone under that magical boundary since the Los Angeles Games of 1984.
But with his fast finish, Wariner managed to pull the next six runners to a depth never before achieved in an Olympic final.
Although coming away medalless, Grenada’s Alleyne Francique ran superbly in the blind position of lane eight, and finished fourth in 44.66.
Behind him came Jamaicans Brandon Simpson (44.76) and Davian Clarke (44.83), plus the lone European in the final, France’s Leslie Djhone (44.94).
Only the third Jamaican, Michael Blackwood, who was challenged by the geometry of lane one, failed to crack the 45-second mark with his eighth-place 45.55.
EG
