Williams Finishes Second in Women’s 100
Webb Sprints to Claim Last Qualifying Spot
By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 27, 2007; 12:30 PM
OSAKA, Japan, Aug. 27 – It’s been a rough summer for U.S. sprinter Lauryn Williams, who has battled injuries and slow times and did not look even close to ready to defend her 100-meter title at the 11th IAAF world track and field championships.
Williams, however, has become a master of coming up with her biggest performances in the biggest events. Monday, she produced one of her most surprising successes yet.
Three years after winning the silver medal in her first Olympics and two years after claiming a gold medal in her first world championships, Williams won the silver medal in a 100 final that was so close it took more than five minutes for race officials to declare a winner. That honor went to Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell, the reigning Olympic bronze medalist, who crossed the line in 11.01 seconds.
“I put my heart out there,” Williams said. “I’m not at all upset at what I did.”
Williams, also credited with a finish in 11.01, produced her best time of a season in which she has been hampered by hamstring problems and hadn’t once broken 11 seconds. U.S. teammate Carmelita Jeter won the bronze in 11.02, and Torri Edwards, the U.S. champion who was considered a favorite for the gold, finished fourth in 11.05.
The race’s finish was clouded by confusion. Strangely, the scoreboard at first credited Edwards with the victory, but her name quickly was removed.
As race officials reviewed the results, which were almost impossible to dissect even with slow-motion replays, the runners milled nervously around the track, looking to the giant scoreboard at Nagai Stadium for news.
“I wasn’t sure exactly what happened,” Williams said. “Looking at the replay, I couldn’t decide for myself. I was really hoping my name would be up there” for the gold.
Instead, Campbell got to throw her arms in the air with joy, taking a belated – but no less exuberant – victory lap as Williams and Edwards bowed their heads and filed toward the interview room. Campbell is a training mate of U.S. sprinter Tyson Gay, who won the men’s 100 gold Sunday, and both have managed extraordinary success without the day-to-day oversight of their coach, Lance Brauman. Brauman is imprisoned in Texas on fraud charges but still provides his athletes with training programs.
Edwards looked gravely disappointed, having put together one of the best seasons of her career two years after returning from a drug suspension over what had been ruled inadvertent use of a stimulant.
Edwards, who ran a 10.90 earlier this year and topped Williams at the U.S. championships, was at a loss to explain the result.
“Toward the end I kind of faded,” Edwards said. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get the win . . . I’ll have to go out and look at the race and see what happened.”
For Jeter, the bronze medal capped a superb coming-out season. An unacclaimed athlete at Cal State Dominguez in 2003, this was her first major international competition.
" It was a tight race and I knew it was going to come down to the line," Jeter said. "I knew that I was going to have to put as much neck and arm and shoulder and foot in as possible. . . . When I walked out here I was smiling because I knew it was my turn and I knew I was going get it, period. "
Williams, meantime, is now four for four in medal opportunities in major championships. She also won a silver medal at the 2006 world indoor championships.
“It’s just something about big events,” she said. “It’s do or die, and I did.”
In other news, Reston’s Alan Webb knew just seconds into his 1500 semifinal that he had messed up. His lack of aggressiveness at the start left him at the very back of a slow-paced pack of runners for three-and-a-half laps.
The poor positioning nearly cost him a place in the final that he is a favorite to win.
Webb, however, used a desperate, full-out sprint in the homestretch to finish in 3 minutes, 42.08 seconds, claiming the fifth – and last – automatic qualifying spot in his heat in a race that was so close a jumble of bodies appeared to cross the line at the same time.
“I knew it was really close,” Webb said. “I was trying to count the guys in front of me. The last 50 meters, I was just trying to stay as relaxed as I could.”
Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzi finished first in 3:40.53 seconds, followed by Mexican Juan Luis Barrios (3:40.79), Spain’s Arturo Casado (3:40.83) and Bahrain’s Belal Mansoor Ali (3:41.01).
The sixth and seventh place finishers in Webb’s heat also advanced, as it turned out, but Webb, who failed to get out of the first round at the 2004 Summer Games after colliding with another runner, did not know he could have finished out of the top five until later. The top five in each advanced automatically, plus the two fastest from either heat.
“I wasn’t aggressive enough at the start,” Webb said. “I had to do something I don’t like doing, being in the back the whole time. It almost cost me a spot in the final.”
Indeed, the harrowing race gave Webb a scare, but its conclusion ensured he would have a chance to contend for his first major international championship in Wednesday night’s final along with Kenyan-born U.S. teammate Bernard Lagat.
Lagat easily won the night’s first final with an impressive sprint that brought him home in 3:42.49, ahead of Algeria’s Tarek Boukensa (3:42.88) and Kenya’s Asbel Kiprop (3:42.99).
“I got boxed in,” Lagat said. But “I managed to get out and I ran really hard the last 200 meters.”
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