Healthy Jeremy Wariner starts fast at TCU with gold as goal
Posted Friday, Mar. 16, 20120 Comments PrintReprints
Share
Topics:Athletes, Surgery
Tags:TCU, primes, University of Texas at Arlington, triple jump, hamstring
Article
Comments
A
College notes: TCU wins Mountain West baseball opener at UNLV
Follow Charean Williams on Twitter
Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
By Charean Williams
Jeremy Wariner ran a time of 20.66 to win the 200-meter dash at the TCU Invitational on Friday. It was a faster outdoor debut for him than last year at the same meet.
That after he ran a 20.91 at a February indoor meet in Arkansas, the first time Wariner had run indoors since 2004.
Slowly, but surely, Wariner is close to running fast again.
“People can see that I’m slowly getting back,” Wariner said. “My times are pretty quick right now, early on.”
This could be the best year of Wariner’s life. He and his wife, Sarah, who were married Nov. 5, are expecting a child Oct. 15. They jokingly have nicknamed the child Turbo.
Before that, Wariner hopes to not only compete in his third Olympics, but win his second individual Olympic gold medal. After winning in the 400-meter dash at the Athens Games, Wariner had to settle for the silver in Beijing four years ago.
“If he’s healthy, he should be [the favorite],” said Clyde Hart, Wariner’s coach. “He’s at the prime when 400 runners run well. I expect him to have a good year. It’s an Olympic year, and our goal, just like everybody else’s, is the gold. If you don’t reach it, you get what you get. Right now, we’re going after a couple of gold medals in the Olympics.”
Wariner, 28, was ranked either first or second in the world in the 400 by Track & Field News every year from 2004-2010. He won an Olympic gold, two world titles, Olympic silver and a world silver in that seven-year span. But he has not run a sub-44-second time in the 400 since a 43.82 in 2008. Injuries mostly are to blame.
Wariner had surgery on his right knee in December 2009 after tearing cartilage. That eventually led to a sore hamstring that cut short his 2010 season. Last year, he tore a ligament in his left foot and needed surgery on his left knee.
Wariner had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Aug. 14.
“I feel great,” Wariner said. “The knee is feeling good. My toe is feeling real good. The hamstrings are fine.”
Wariner is noticeably leaner. He said he is down to 153 pounds, which is where he was in 2006-07.
“I want to show people that I haven’t gone anywhere,” he said. “Last year I just got hurt, and I am going to be back where I was.”
Wariner had hoped to run the second leg of the 4x400 relay Friday, but Marcus Boyd, who led off, cramped and didn’t finish. Wariner is scheduled to run the 200 and the relay March 24 at UT Arlington.
Silmon paces TCU
TCU picked up seven first-place finishes in the TCU Invitational, led by sprinter Charles Silmon. The junior had a personal-best 10.18 in the 100, the fastest collegiate time in the meet and second only to Olympian Wallace Spearmon, who ran a 10.06.
“That was one of the only races of the day that wasn’t wind-aided, so I’m happy for him,” TCU coach Darryl Anderson said of Silmon.
UTA fares well
UTA senior Isiah Clements was “a little under the weather,” but he didn’t let that detour him from winning the high jump. He cleared 6 feet, 8 inches.
UTA’s Omar Barnes won the triple jump, going 48-4.
Charean Williams
817-390-7760
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/03/16/3815960/healthy-jeremy-wariner-starts.html#storylink=cpy