AUSTIN, Texas, April 4 AFP - Olympic 100 metres champion Maurice Greene was beaten on the final leg of a4x100m relay race as he opened his outdoor season at theTexas Relays today.
Greene’s HSI quartet were already trailing the US Redteam when Greene received the baton in a bad final handover with his Trinidadian teammate Ato Boldon.
Although he made up ground on US anchor JJ Johnson,Greene’s team were second in 38.30sec behind thewinners’ world-class time of 38.14sec.
``By the time I got the baton, the other team hadtaken off,’’ said Greene.
The 29-year-old American only ran once indoors thiswinter, over 60m in the US Indoor Championships but pulled out of thefinal after complaining of leg pain.
His immediate goal is a place in the top three of theUS Olympic trials in July in order to defend his 100mcrown in Athens in August.
Greene’s HSI teammate Larry Wade posted an impressivetime of 13.13sec for the 110m hurdles at the Texas meeting.