Humble Gatlin wants new image for
track
Well, it's what he DIDN'T do after winning
the Olympic 100 meters in 9.85 seconds that set him apart.
There was no strutting. No preening. No
declaration that he's the king of track.
``I just want to give a good image to the
sport,'' Gatlin said Sunday. ``I'm not saying that anybody's tainted the sport,
but I think it's my turn to show that there's a lot of
good people out there in the sport of track and field.
``I want to show that nice guys can finish
first. ... I feel that I'm likable. I feel that I'm honest. I go out there and
give a good race for the crowd.''
He did this time, clocking a personal best
in his biggest race to finish .01 ahead of Francis Obikwelu of Portugal
and .02 ahead of defending champion Maurice Greene
of the United States. It was the
closest finish for an Olympic 100 final since the U.S.-boycotted 1980 Moscow
Games.
``It felt so easy,'' said Gatlin, whose
previous best was 9.92. ``And there were a lot of technical errors. The last 10
meters, I closed my hands and was running with pumped fists. If I had run
relaxed, I could've run 9.8, 9.79. So I think I still have a chance to go out
there and break the world record or run faster than I did tonight.''
Now that's the kind of talk expected from
the Olympic champion.
Except the way Gatlin says it, he's being
confident, not cocky.
Cocky is Greene getting a tattoo
proclaiming himself the ``greatest of all time.'' Or Shawn Crawford,
the other American in the field, slowing down while leading a semifinal heat
and turning to talk to Gatlin, his training partner, for the last 15 meters.
``That's how they do it, how they get
themselves pumped up and run fast times. I hope they still do it because it's
better competition when it's a faster race,'' Gatlin said.
He crossed the line with his mouth wide
open, dropped to his knees and clasped his hands in prayer. Then he jumped into
the stands as part of a victory lap around the stadium, at one point crowning a
fan with his laurel wreath.
Although he was exhausted -- ``I thought,
`Wow, this is harder than running the race!''' -- he
felt obliged to respond to the energy he felt from the crowd.
``I just wanted to touch everybody, shake
everybody's hand,'' he said.
The 22-year-old Gatlin was born in
Gatlin began taking prescription medicine
to treat a form of attention deficit disorder when he was young. In 2001, an
amphetamine in that medicine caused a positive test at the 2001
Sunday night, he made it clear he has
little tolerance for the drug cheats who have jaded fans into waiting for urine
tests to come back before crowning new champions.
``Everyone has a responsibility to uphold
and everyone should have a little dignity for themselves,'' he said. ``All the
questions now are about drugs. ... I'd like to hear more questions about, `What's you're next race? How do you feel?' Even if it's personal questions, I just want to try to get away from
the drug question.''
OK, then, getting back to the personal
stuff:
Gatlin wears a diamond in his left ear and
a platinum chain around his neck. His left wrist bears the yellow rubber ``Live
Strong'' band from the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
While they were created to support cancer
awareness, Gatlin got it from a friend to cheer him up after he ran the 100 in
10.19 to finish last in the Prefontaine Classic.
``It reminds me to make every race count,''
he said.
He did at the Olympic Trials, finishing .01
behind Greene in the 100 and just behind Crawford in the 200.
Gatlin begins 200 heats on Tuesday, with
the final Thursday night. He knows another victory would really kick his
good-guy campaign into high gear.
``If I just stay cool and run my race in
the 200, don't worry about what happened in the 100,'' he said, ``I know I can
go out there and win the gold.''
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