MOST OF THIS IS A REHASH OF SEVERAL PREVIOUS INTERVIEWS.
BUT THIS OFFERS A COUPLE OF TWISTS: WHO IS DUDLEY HART AND WHEN DID HE START COACHING BERSHAWN (??) :rolleyes: MERRITT?:eek: 
I MAY BE WRONG, BUT I DON’T THINK CLYDE COACHES EITHER BERSHAWN JACKSON (WHO WHEN I LAST LOOKED WAS WITH BOB KERSEE) OR LASHAWN MERRITT. THE JOURNO PIRATE IRWIN IS A TOP BLOKE (FOR A POM) , BUT HE’S ENTITLED TO GIVE HIMSELF AN UPPERCUT FOR THIS EFFORT.
by Pirate Irwin
BEIJING, Aug 10, 2008 (AFP) - Olympic and two-time world 400 metres champion Jeremy Wariner’s previously serene world has suffered a shake-up or two this year but he will be looking to stabilise it here at the Olympics with a successful defence of his crown.
The 24-year-old may still have world recordholder Michael Johnson guiding him as his agent but he has lost the services of legendary coach Dudley Hart and it is one of the latter’s present stable, Bershawn Merritt who poses the greatest threat to his supremacy in the event.
Merritt has fired the warning shots already this season inflicting two defeats on Wariner, including the US Olympic trial final, though the Olympic champion fired back with two victories in Europe.
Their match-up could well prove to be the feature of the athletics part of the Olympics, with the added spice of Hart on the one side while Wariner relies on the services of Mike Ford, the man who persuaded Wariner to come to Baylor University where he and Hart coach.
There have been much touted claims that Wariner split from Hart because he wasn’t happy with the coach’s financial demands, something which the coach confirmed - that Wariner was not satisfied with his earnings after paying taxes and Johnson and wanted to reduce Hart’s payments by half.
I don't feel I'm a discount coach,'' said Hart. Jeremy had the best year of his life last year and I didn’t feel a 50percent paycut was justified.’’
In public at least the athlete gives another reason.
I felt I needed a change. Coach Hart is looking at retirement. He's a little older,'' Wariner said. I knew I had to find someone who believes in the same things and I found coach Ford. He knows everything I did and I felt like that would be important. I know if I need to ask coach Hart anything, he will be there to answer it.’’
Logically one would doubt that Hart would do any such thing with Merritt in his stable but since moving to Ford nothing else has changed in Wariner’s workout regimen.
We're still doing the same things on the track. The workouts are exactly the same,'' Wariner said. Training has been going good. I’m feeling stronger and faster right now.
``My expectations are to go out there and win, to show I’m the number one quarter-miler out there and it’s going to take a lot to beat me.’’
Indeed Wariner, who always wears dark glasses when running because he says it focuses his mind just on his lane, believes that he has just two things that can beat him - and neither of them is Merritt.
``The first is myself, if I lose focus, and the second is the weather conditions,’’ said Wariner, who in 2004 became the first white American athlete to win a sprint medal since Mike Larabee in 1964.
Merritt for his part can see himself turning over Wariner as he did in Berlin and the trials.
I didn't feel like I was the underdog coming into the trials because this is what I do and this is what he does,'' said the 22-year-old, who took silver in the world championships last year. He trains every day, I train every day. He laces his shoes up the way I do. We got into a fight and I won (the trials),’’ added Merritt.
However, Merritt is clear that despite Wariner’s title haul it was time for there to be a changing of the guard.
``If you want to know the truth, he was the Olympic champion in ‘04, a world champion a year ago,’’ Merritt said.
It's a new year. I want to be No. 1 this year. It's what I've been training to do. I’ve been training hard to be No. 1 since last year’s world championship,’’ Merritt said.
``All I know is that no one trains as hard as I have to be No. 2. I’ve put in way too much sweat and work to accept the idea of being No. 2.’’
