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News29 Jul 2001


When records spurn the Worlds

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When records spurn the Worlds
By IAAF Correspondent
30 July 2001 – Edmonton - When Carl Lewis surged through to win the 100 metres final at the World Championships in Tokyo in  1991, the clock flashed out 9.86 seconds and a world record had been set.

August 25 will be a decade since that momentous Lewis run. Momentous because there has been no 100m world record in the World Championships since.

The time of course has now gone down to Maurice Greene’s spectacular 9.79 seconds in the Grand Prix meeting in Athens in 1999 and at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, Donovan Bailey ran his superb 9.84.

But why has the Worlds missed out?

Who better to ask than Greene himself.

“It is a difficult question to answer,” he says. “Though I think it is proof that gold still remains the greatest incentive for anyone in this sport. Times are there to be broken and I always have this motto about going there to run fast. I always want to run fast. But I put victory first and if the time is a world record, what more can I ask.

“Pride is something which plays a big part with me. I have been world 100m champion since 1997 and I want to stay that way. It is why winning — not times — is the essence. Sure, the two go together and I would love to win in Edmonton and break the world record. Maybe it is a psychological thing. Winning comes first.”

Lewis’ time, as he won the last major 100m title of his career, has only been surpassed twice in the World Championships since. By Greene when he ran 9.80 to win gold in Seville and by Canadian Bruny Surin who was second behind him on that night in Spain in 9.84.

Greene had equalled the Lewis 9.86 in Athens at the 1997 World Championships but in an earlier round, his training partner Ato Boldon had run the same time and expectations were so high of a world record being run in the final.

It was not to be.

In 1993, Linford Christie won gold in Stuttgart in 9.87, again just the wrong side of the Lewis world record run from Tokyo.

With the worlds now a bi-annual spectacular, you would have thought that there would be more chance of the world record itself being breached because of the new possibilities for attempts at the greatest speed being more regularly opened.

But it was ironic that Greene broke the world record on the same Athens track where he had won the World title two years earlier.

He added: “Maybe it is all about expectations. Maybe people think because it is the worlds, then the world record will go. I don’t know if anyone expected me to do it in Athens in 99. I always want to break it if I can, and that night it all fitted into place - when most were not expecting it.”

Greene talks of joining the legends such as Lewis and he knows he has to follow some of his fellow American’s achievements to do that. More medals and more records, he says.

And one way of doing that will be winning a world title in a world record time.

“Everything has to be right but I am going to Edmonton to run a fast time,” said Greene. “I know there are some great guys out, fast and hoping to beat me. But if I am right, I will be hard to get past.”

The world record had been set in the previous World Championships to Tokyo when Ben Johnson ran 9.87, a time removed from the record books.

Then Lewis delivered on a steamy night in Japan and since, the world championships has missed out.

There have been some great duels, non-better than in Athens in 1997 when Boldon had set that marker of 9.86, only to have his great friend beat him in the final.

It has been suggested that it is better to break world records in Grand Prix meetings because of the financial reward on offer but Greene has said: “You don’t think like that during a race. You hardly have time to think at all in the 100m.”

So, watch that clock in Edmonton. Greene has talked about taking the time to 9.75. But 9.78 would do.

A fitting way to end a 10-year World Championship wait?

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