Warner loses!

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41

Yes I have. He was cool with me, and I actually sat and chatted with him for 30-40 minutes on more than one occasion about any number of things (ie: not just track and field). My impression was that he is extremely bright and perceptive.

HOWEVER, I also saw him treat others with complete disdain and disrespect for no justifiable reason. On more than instance these were young people who just wanted to show their admiration for his accomplishments. I’ve been around a large number of world class athletes form a number of different sports and had never seen someone be so rude to people. This completely soured my overall picture of the man.

How this may effect his management of Wariner I cannot say. I’ll leave the conspiracy theories to others as I’m not one who often ascribes to such things. Leave me alone in my naivety I guess. :cool:

42

I don’t want to turn this into psychoanalytic debate about experience. However your experience of MJ was positive. How you interpret the episode of MJ treating others may not the same as they experience it. The most accurate way to form our beliefs about someone is through our own direct experience.

43

How MJ and I were introduced, combined with my position at the time meant that he approached me differently that he ordinarily might have. Observations are part of one’s life experience and here is no justification for being rude to people, who are attempting to be both cordial and deferential, especially when we are talking about young people. I simply can’t overlook this type of behavior when I’ve seen it occur on multiple occasions.

I won’t come flat out and say MJ’s a mean person. Rather I think that he needs to make a substantial attitude adjustment. Fame is fleeting and in 10 years time many will have forgotten what did. Being a “prick” as Charlie put it is no way to nurture one legacy.

44

You probably want to remain anonymous but I have some fleeting suspicion what happened. So I won’t say where it happened. I won’t go so far to say MJ a prick, I’ll say he has some areas to work on.

45

Let’s get back to the topic. JW v LM in the Beijing, nominate your tip?

46

LM has too much speed. He should just squeek through the rounds then blow up J-Dub.

47

He definitely has much more speed. Maybe the first two rounds may flatten him. That’s why I think JW will win.

48

LM is faster over 200m but I am not sure there is much difference between their 300m times.

49

Good Idea! :cool:

50

I’m a big fan of both but I love the way LM has progressed in the last 12 months and I’m leaning towards the big fella to win in a fair dinkum epic battle to the line.

Reminds me of Bonecrusher and Our Waverley Star in the 1986 Cox Plate when the 'Crusher got his nose in front just before the line. LM is the new Bonecrusher!

Jut on MJ, like a few others I don’t know the bloke and have never met him so I can’t comment on him as a person. BUT I was very disappointed with that self indulgent bore of a book - “Slaying the Dragon”. If that’s a true representation of MJ, then I reckon some of the negativity he’s attracted maybe warranted.

51

I like Slaying the Dragon and found it a worthwhile read.

52

Maaaate…what a classic! :wink:

//youtu.be/eRd4GhoNLUM

FWIW I hope JW wins.

53

I still think Jeremy will take the Beijing title. Let’s not forget that their PRs are way different (half a second is an age). Jeremy was running 44.0x in May last year, and he’s doing the same for 400m now. Perhaps he’s a bit behind. But again, LaShawn has only gone <44 once in hs career. And Jeremy has already been at the top. He’s a cool cat under pressure. I think Jeremy just ticks too many boxes that LaShawn doesn’t.

BUT, with all of that said, I think we shouldn’t make any really bold predictions with 10 weeks still to go…Although I just did. Haha. Nah seriously though, a lot can happen in 10 weeks for both athletes. And what about Taylor? Christopher? Maybe even Steffensen (although he’s got so much ground to catch up)?

54

I think jeremy is rocked by his first loss in what 2-3 years in the 400. I think merrit might have his number now, even though it is early. Jeremy picked the wrong time to leave his coach

55

I don’t like to speculate but one athlete is moving up and one is staying the same- maybe. One athlete has stayed on track and one has made changes.

56

I thought I read or heard J.W. had some injury issues. If so this could play a big factor in his training up to this date, and further down the road.

This would cause any betting man to use caution.

57

merritt to win.

58

Good get John, thanks for the video of the greatest horse race I’ve seen. Brings back some wonderful memories. I was lucky enough to be at the Valley that day. It seemed half the grandstand was barracking for Our Waverley Star, the half for Bonecrusher. I backed the Crusher and yelled myself hoarse for the last 3 furlongs. When they took off from the ‘school’ it was a spine tingling feeling as they went stride for stride. The whole grandstand gave them a standing ovation when they returned to the mounting yard.

I reckon I might have a quid on LaShawn ‘Bonecrusher’ Merritt, so I’m not sitting on the fence when the gun goes!

59

I need another race out of Wariner before I make a prediction.

60

Defeat in Berlin - “I’m already past it” confirms Wariner - ÅF Golden League.

Oslo, Norway.

Jeremy Wariner today drew upon a previous experience of his being the victim of a major upset to explain why he expects to retain his Olympic 400m title in Beijing in August. Wariner was speaking for the first time since he suffered a shock defeat against his United States compatriot, LaShawn Merritt, on Sunday (1 June).

Merritt, the World Championships runner-up behind Wariner in Osaka last summer, defeated his countryman in the opening ÅF Golden League meeting of the season in Berlin four days ago. Merritt clocked a 2008 world leading 44.03 with Wariner four-hundredths behind in the DKB-ISTAF meeting.

Wariner returns to competition tomorrow (6) in the second ÅF Golden League meeting of the season, the Exxon Mobil Bislett Games, here. However, he will not face Merritt, who is scheduled to race at another IAAF World Athletics Tour meet in Eugene, Oregon, on Sunday (8). Chris Brown, of the Bahamas, third in Berlin and fourth in the World Championships in Osaka last year, would appear to be his most likely challenger in Oslo.

The World and Olympic champion left the 1936 Olympic Stadium without comment on Sunday but insisted today that he had not been scarred by the defeat. “It didn’t hurt me at all,” he said. “You win some, you lose some. Life goes on. You go to the next race. I have more important things in the rest of my season than just that one race. I ran a season’s best, 44.07. I can’t complain about that.”

Far from complaining, the 24-year-old Wariner said that the loss would spur him on. “I just use it as motivation if I lose,” he said. And, asked whether he was as confident now of retaining his title in Beijing as he was before Berlin, he was adamant: “Definitely,” he said. “What’s one race going to do to me? I’ve lost before. I lost in London to Tim Benjamin and I came back and won the World Championships and ran 43 seconds (43.93) for the first time.”

That was in 2005 when, as Olympic champion, Wariner was beaten by Benjamin, a Briton inspired in front of his home crowd at Crystal Palace, in the London Super Grand Prix. Four days later, Wariner returned to the winning groove, at the Super Grand Prix meeting in Stockholm and, less than three weeks later, he had added the World title to his laurels while Benjamin finished fifth.

My legs weren’t moving like I wanted them to.

Asked whether he was over the defeat in Berlin – only his fifth in 43 races at 400m - Wariner responded: “I think so. I’m already past it. After the race, by about 30 minutes to an hour, I had talked to my manager Deon (Minor), my agent Michael Johnson, and my coach, Michael Ford. After that I was over it. I looked past it, learned from what I did in that race, and started looking ahead to this race.”

However, asked to reflect on what went wrong, Wariner said: “I haven’t looked at the race yet but I know that, when I got to the 300m mark and I tried to use my kick like I usually do, it wasn’t there. I ran a great race but my final 100m wasn’t what it usually is. My legs weren’t moving like I wanted them to.”

“A lot of it was the fact that they had us out there really early. Because of something going on (an anti global warming demonstration) they had only three (athletes’) buses running. We left the hotel about 12 and we never ran until 4.30. That had a big factor on it but it also had a big factor on all athletes, not just me. I’m not going to have the best race every time I step on the track.”

Breaking 43 secs.

Wariner said that, as well as retaining his Olympic title, breaking 43 seconds was “a big goal on my list”. His current best is 43.45 and Johnson’s world record, set in 1999, is 43.18. For tomorrow, though, Wariner would no doubt be delighted if he could slay Johnson’s Bislett Games record of 43.86, set in 1995. Not that he would say so today. “If I break it, I break it. If not I am not going to be disappointed,” he said. “I’ll just try to go out there and have a good race and try to run a season’s best.”

Even the Johnson, the one man ahead of Wariner as the greatest 400m runner in history, was not immune to the occasional upset. It happened to him here 10 years ago when he was beaten into third place by two British athletes, Mark Richardson and Iwan Thomas. Johnson responded by boycotting the victory ceremony.

David Powell for the IAAF.