ATHENS – After the long month of worry and whispers, of rampant rumor and suspicious snickers, the U.S. track and field community finally had a night that it’ll want to keep pressed between the pages of its scrapbook forever.
Last night, the Americans went 1-2-3 in the men’s 200-meter dash, right on the heels of going 1-2 in the men’s long jump.
The dominant performances not only gave the U.S. eight out of nine medals in the men’s sprinting events (after sweeping the 400 and going 1-3 in the 100), but also gave the team 18 medals with two full days of competition to go in these Olympics; they had 20 for all of the Sydney Games.
“We knew we could pull off a meet like this, even if there were lots of doubts about us,” said Shawn Crawford, who shook off a disappointing fourth-place finish in the 100 (though he was only four-hundredths of a second from winning gold) to capture the 200 in a personal-best time of 19.79 seconds.
Bernard Williams was second at 20.01, also a personal best, while Justin Gatlin, who already earned gold in the 100, got the bronze at 20.03
The meet was marred by a long, ominous demonstration by Greek fans, 75,000 strong, who thought they would get to see the Americans challenge their reigning national track hero, Kostas Kenteris. Kenteris won the event in 2000 but was bounced out of these Olympics after failing to take a drug test.
Greek fans chanted “Kenteris!” and “Hellas!” so loud and so often that the start of the 200-meter race was delayed nearly four full minutes.
“It felt like show time at the Apollo,” said Williams. “You had to prove to the audience what you had, before they’d accept you. That’s what we did tonight. We made them accept what we did.”
It was the sixth time Americans swept the 200, although just the first time since 1984. And it was especially sweet coming on the heels of Dwight Phillips’ victory in the long jump.
Phillips cleared 8.59 meters (28 feet, 2 1/4 inches) to easily outdistance John Moffitt, the reigning NCAA champ, whose 8.47 meters (27-9 1/2) earned him a bronze and helped atone for the U.S. getting shut out of the long jump medals four years ago in Sydney.
Phillips was especially grateful for last night’s dominant American performance since he’s been saddened by the toll the BALCO investigation has taken on his sport.
“The darkness will continue to follow us for a while until we prove that we can overcome it,” he said. “But I think a few more performances like this will certainly make the healing process ever quicker. This is a very good, very deep track team. We will survive, and we will thrive.”
So far, they certainly have.
