300m WIR Under Seige: Clement, Spearmon, Merritt & Omar Brown in Arkansas

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THIS STORY COURTESY OF THE IAAF WEBSITE

Clement, Spearmon… line-up to attack World indoor best in Fayetteville
Thursday 12 January 2006
Springdale, Arkansas, USA - A quartet of the world’s best sprinters has been assembled to challenge the fastest ever indoor time for the rarely run distance of 300m. The race will be contested at the Tyson Invitational on 10 February at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The sponsors Tyson Foods have provided an incentive of US$25,000 for anyone accomplishing a new World indoor best.

Leading the challengers to the historic :cool: 32.19 second time which Brazil’s Robson da Silva set on 24 February 1989 in Karlsruhe, Germany, will be Kerron Clement (USA) who stunned the sport last winter with his 44.57 World Indoor record, eclipsing the legendary Michael Johnson (44.63 – 1995) as the fastest indoor runner of all-time at 400m.

Joining the 20-year-old Clement who ran 400m Hurdles outdoors last summer and is currently IAAF World Ranked number five for that event, will be two more young and prodigiously talented USA sprinters, Wallace Spearmon and LaShawn Merritt.

Spearmon, 21, is of course the outdoor World Championship 200m silver medallist, and on the Fayetteville track last winter ran an Area record for the indoor 200m of 20.10 (11 March). He is IAAF World Ranked number 2 for the 200m.

Merritt, 19, the World Junior 400m champion, is no stranger to the venue either as it was at the Tyson Invitational last year that he sped to the fastest ever indoor time run by a junior for 400m (44.93), a performance which was also the fourth quickest time on the senior all-time list.

Joining this trio of Americans will be Jamaica’s 23-year-old Omar Brown, who set a national indoor record for 200m of 20.52 at Fayetteville last year (11 March).

“Now that Tyson has added this $25,000 incentive, I am more determined than ever to try,” said Spearmon. “With such a strong field in this event the winner will have to show he has a combination of power and endurance. The winner of this race will no doubt also be the new world record holder.”

Chris Turner for the IAAF

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I thought Michael Johnson held the 300m indoor record with a 30.85?

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That is the Outdoor WR that he holds - easy mistake to make

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Wonder what his splits at 100m and especially 200m were en route to that outrageous 30.8 :eek: :slight_smile:

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The splits are given in ATFS annual 2001 for the 30.85 (high altitude):
10.68 + 9.43 + 10.74 (20.11 at 200m).
It was on 24 March 2000, on 18th, he did 19.71 (high altitude) for a 200m and on 31th 43.9 hand timed for 400m (low altitude).

The line up for this indoor 300 is superb, and Fayetteville is a treadmill so maybe we are going to see a sub32?

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9.43 for the second one!!! this man is crazy. but anyways, i think the line -up is missing jermey warnier, but i mean, the winner will definitely produce something amazing, clement and spearmon will kill each other in that one, one coming from the four (endurance) and one from the two (speed) so it would be really interesting to see the results of that…