By Stefano Blin
ROME, July 10 AFP - Olympic 100 metres championMaurice Greene was in no mood to relax on the eve of thethird Golden League meeting starting here tomorrow.
If you go into the race and be aggressive you run9.9 - if you don't, and you're too relaxed, you'relooking at 10 flat or 10.1,'' the 28-year-old Americantold AFP. Greene, seeking a fourth consecutive world title inParis next month, insisted he would not change his styleto accommodate the new ruling which allows only onefalse start and disqualifies any offender thereafter. There are rules that take things away from us,’’ hesaid.
As man progresses, so does his reactions. It has taken some of the aggression out of us. Wehave to be on the edge.
I've got to do what I've got to do. If that meansbeing thrown out of the race, then I'm sorry.'' Greene admitted he was struggling to find form and hadeven entered the preliminary race in Rome for extrapractice. It is time to start heating things up a bit with theworld championships coming up,’’ said the sprinternicknamed the ‘Kansas Comet’ who is aiming for a fifthconsecutive win in the Italian capital.
Also in the hunt among the speed merchants areAustralian Patrick Johnson who has clocked the fastest2003 time of 9.93, American Bernard Williams, winner oflast week’s event in Paris, and Nigerian Deji Aliu, whoran 10 flat in Greece last month.
Tim Montgomery, holder of the 100m world record afterrunning 9.78 last September, pulled out earlier this week tospend time with girlfriend Marion Jones.
The triple Olympic champion gave birth to their firstchild, a baby boy, Tim Junior, on June 28.
World record holder Haile Gebrselassie faces stiffcompetition in the 5000m from fellow Ethiopian KenenisaBekele, who could well take him on for the world 10,000min Paris.
He's the new prince, or maybe he is already theking,'' said Gebrselassie of his young rival. Kenenisa is different from the others,psychologically and mentally. He know what he is capableof. I’m really happy for him.’’
Despite singing Bekele’s praises, Gebrselassie wasupbeat about his own chances despite being upstaged byKenyan Abraham Chebii in Paris last week.
``I’m not finished yet,’’ said the 30-year-oldveteran, who will be running only his second 5000m racein three years after deciding to step up to marathons.
The Golden League is made up of Europe’s six biggestsingle day athletics meetings of the summer andculminates in the two-day Grand Prix finals in Monaco inSeptember.
A reward of $US1 million ($A1.53 million)'s worth ofgold is awarded to any athlete who wins their event inall six Golden League meetings and just turns up at theGrand Prix finals.
If there is more than one winner the prize is shared.
Only two athletes, both of them women, are still incontention this year - Mozambique’s Maria Mutola, whoruns in the 800m, and Bahamas sprinter Chandra Sturrup.
I’ve been wondering about the slow times myself. but they seem to be getting faster, plus it’s only early july. I’m sure they’ll speed up. if not, then maybe Greene is on to something.
I would suspect it would be a problem to adjust to, however the reaction times that have been listed don’t show this. i personally wonder how this is possible and if reaction times listed are accurate (either before or now). Thoughts??
i hadn’t checked the reaction times. If they haven’t changed then i feel that Greene is wrong and that the slow times are more to the time of year. Like i said earlier it’s only early july. I’m looking forward to a race where we have a few sub 10’s.
Re slow times.
How can it be the “time of season”
The Americans reached a peak at their selection trials and the Europeans have reached a peak for their trials which start in the coming week.
Patrick Johnson ran his 9.93sec in a block of training in May, when his Oz season ended early April.
I don’t have any answers, but just to raise the notion that most of these guys should be flying right now, whereas Johnson - even though racing - is still six weeks away from his next predicted peak, having last peaked theoretically at least in April for his selection trials.
i’m still sure the times will get faster, if not then something serious is going on with training this year. it’s a pre olympic year, we should be seeing great things like Greene and Ato did in 99
Reaction times or not, it is a terrible rule that is the worst of all worlds. Why WOULDN’T someone false-start every time since the penalty is not on the perpetrator, but on everyone, and if you don’t do it, someone else will. Made-for TV rules are invariably bad, though, if a rule change is needed, if would be better to have the no false start rule.
Mark my words. There will be a disaster at an important meet and the rule will be re-considered.
that’s an interesting point. something like that may happen. I agree with the no false rule if you’re gonna have any rule of the sort.
The rules as they stood served well for a century, as long as a competent starter employed a hold long enough to eliminate guessing. Don’t fix what ain’t broke.
1.I agree there will be a disaster a major meet. What are your thoughts on linford christie. Didnt he tell reporters he was out of the b of the bang?( Also according to phaff) false starts play into the hand of the person who is inferior in starting ablility. It seems to hurt some of the good starters as they can get unralved quickly with the false starts. Do you think hes right. Thoughts?
2.I remember reading that a good starter would react well to any motion from the blocks. However, wouldn’t a good starter only react if to the gun. Sort of liked a trained dog.
I watched Linford’s starts in Atlanta a number of times and I didn’t see the false start.
I don’t think false starts play into the hands of the bad starters- there’s a difference between the start technique and reaction times.
The effective starter thinks only of the action after the gun- not the gun itself (the difference is .1 sec!) so they can be set of by external noises etc.
Again a terrible rule!
In a major championships we might see what happened in Gateshead. There will be some false starts, or misinterpretations by starters and officials. The sprintes will start getting peed of, they’ll go at it again, the gun will be re-called, 3 or 4 sprinters will carry on all the way to the end of the race. The race will be postponed 30 minutes to give them a rest (pissing of the t.v viewers) or worse they’ll have to go at it again 5 mins later. The ones that didn’t do the full 100meters 5 mins before will have more energy. “Jo Bloggs” from nowhere will win in 10.03 seconds.
It will all be so anti-climatic. The officials and sports organizers will blame everybody but themselves, but they will discover that they know nothing about the mental and physical aspects of the sprinters.
What are everyone’s thoughts on the .1 rule? In Speed trap it mentions that Ben reacted in .097 (or thereabouts) and inevitably got called back. While in Atlanta, Christie’s reaction time was in the .080s
.80 seems too fast for what I saw. I wonder if Linford was applying a lot of pressure to the pads in set and reached the triggering poundage, setting off the beep before the gun without really moving? Anyone else think that he DIDN’T false start?