GRANT SHIMMIN, Pietersburg | Saturday 5.00pm.
MICHAEL Johnson launched his Olympic campaign devastatingly on Saturday by clocking the fourth fastest 200 metres in history — 19.71 seconds — in his first race of the year.
With an ideal following wind of 1.8 metres per second, the Texan raced away from a field that included South African Marcus la Grange, the fastest man this year before Saturday’s race.
”I knew I was in great shape, but you never know what to expect the first race,” the double Olympic champion said.
”It’s always possible to break the world record, because I still don’t think that I’ve run a perfect race yet,” he said, reflecting on going under his 19.32 seconds, set at the Atlanta Olympics, in Sydney.
Johnson has set three of the four fastest 200m times, the other going to Namibian Frank Fredericks, who recorded 19.68 in the same race in which Johnson set his world mark.
While the following wind was ideal for a fast time and gave Johnson the chance to delight a crowd of around 5000, the other sprinters on the programme had outstanding times neutralised by winds which were over the legal limit of two metres per second.
Australian Melinda Gainsford-Taylor came desperately close to the 11-second barrier, with a brilliant 11.0 in the 100m but the following wind was an extremely strong 3.3 metres per second.
Among the notable performances which were not affected by the wind were Australian Patrick Dwyer’s career-best in the 400m of 44.79 seconds.
Having been upstaged by South African Hendrick Mokganyetsi in a match between the two countries five days earlier, Dwyer produced an exceptional finishing burst to dip under 45 seconds for the first time.
South African Llewellyn Herbert, viewed as a strong contender for Olympic gold in the 400m hurdles, ran the fastest time of the year in the event of 48.50 seconds.
In the women’s discus, 1997 world champion Beatrice Faumuina of New Zealand threw an impressive 65.41m, almost exactly the same as that achieved by male counterpart Frantz Kruger, who recorded 65.43. — Reuters