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Tyson Gay sets a new meet record in the 100 meter dash- 9.84 s
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- Jason McDonald
Gay: Two Goals, Two Gold
By Jason McDonald
On Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis Tyson Gay accomplished what no other athlete could at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. In what could be best described as a myriad of temperature extremes ranging from windy and cold to humid and hot, the former Arkansas Razorback ate up the competition to win gold in both the 100 meter and 200 meter dashes.
Heading up a field of world class sprinters that included Wallace Spearmon, Olympic medalist Shawn Crawford, World Champion Jeremy Wariner, 2006 NCAA Champion Xavier Carter, 2007 NCAA Champion Walter Dix and runner-up Trindon Holliday, Gay served notice as to why he's considered one of the pre-eminent sprinters in the world. Gay had already posted two of the fastest sub-ten second times in the 100 meters before arriving in Indianapolis. He continued the trend posting the fastest 9.98 and 20.66 qualifying times in both events.
In both preliminaries Gay won handily coasting the last 10 meters as he crossed the line. The performances only raised more questions than it answered. Could the field respond to the gauntlet thrown down by Gay? After all, newly turned pro Walter Dix had already cracked both the 10 second barrier in the 100 meters and 20 second barrier in the 200 meters in recent weeks. Of course the obvious question was how fast could Gay run on the super fast mondo surface.
After a rainy start to Friday's competition, the thousands of fans in Michael A. Carroll stadium waited breathlessly for the much anticipated 100 meter final. Out of the blocks well Gay was challenged by Trindon Holliday and Leonard Scott for the first 50 meters. "I think my start was really good," beamed Gay. By the second 50, Gay was well in control of the race breaking the tape in a meet record 9.84 seconds. "It's the best my body has felt in a long time" claimed a relaxed Gay.
A healthy Gay wasn't good news for his competitors in the 200 meters neither was a dry track. In Saturday's first preliminary heat Gay posted the fastest time winning the Heat 4 in 20.66 seconds despite easing up the last 10 meters.
On Sunday, the day of the finals, rain fell for a third consecutive day. But unlike the previous days the drenched track surface retained some of the water that fell throughout the better part of the morning. Puddles weren't the only thing the weather front left behind as a noticeable head wind blew into the finish line.
Neither of the conditions mattered much. Under less favorable race conditions, the result was exactly the same. Just as the echo of the starter's gun began to subside it was replaced by a synchronous roar from the crowd signaling something special was taking place. Indeed it was as Gay emerged from the curve with an unbelievable lead on the entire field. "I tried to get out with him (Tyson Gay), but I couldn't keep up" confessed Adidas teammate Wallace Spearmon. Into the mild head wind, Gay sliced through the head wind undeterred rocketing through the tape in 19.62 seconds breaking his second meet record of the Championships.
"It was probably as perfect as it's going to be in these conditions" commented Gay on his record setting performance. The meet record he broke was set by world record holder Michael Johnson who presented Gay with his championship gold. As if by coincidence or a prelude to much greater achievements, should Gay continue following the Olympian's exploits he may challenge the same World Record Johnson set just over a month after he set the broken meet record.