An expatriate Jamaican who had doping problems at the 1988 Summer Olympics is the latest claimant to the title of world`s fastest human. No, not Ben Johnson of Canada. Sorry to spoil a good story, but he stumbled to a last- place finish in a semifinal heat of the 100 meters Saturday and was just another spectator when the final was run 90 minutes later.
This time, unless there are more unpleasant surprises in results of the doping controls affected after the race, the most unpredictable Olympic 100 meters since World War II produced the oldest champion in the event`s history. He is 32-year-old Linford Christie of Great Britain, who a year ago was ready to retire after finishing fourth at the World Championships despite a personal-best time.
”I had so many letters from people who said please don`t retire, the Olympics are only one year away, it might be your time,” Christie said.
In 9.96 seconds, with 65,000 witnesses at Estadi Olimpic, it was.
And Christie knew it as soon as he reached the midway point of the race. A meter from the finish, he threw up his arms in a victory salute and still finished .06 ahead of silver medalist Frank Fredericks of Namibia, the first black African to win a medal in the 100.
Dennis Mitchell of the United States was third in 10.04, with teammate Leroy Burrell fifth in 10.10. Mark Witherspoon of Chicago, the third U.S. entrant, ruptured an Achilles` tendon in the semifinals. Doctors said his recovery would take up to a year.
Burrell, second at the 1991 World Championships, had been as much a favorite as anyone in the final eight. He had the fastest time in the semifinals, 9.97, despite a headwind, and had beaten Christie 10 straight times.
His chances ended after being called for what he thought was an undeserved false start. Another false start, and Burrell would have been disqualified.
”It took away from my game plan,” Burrell said. ”It bothered me mentally. I was afraid. I could have dealt with it better.”
Christie tries to balance fear and anger in his races. The fear was evident in his wide-eyed look during the first 30 meters. At 60 meters, he began to relax.
”Nobody finishes as good as me, except Carl maybe,” Christie said.
Carl is Carl Lewis, who inherited Johnson`s title as 100-meter Olympic champion in 1988 when the Canadian tested positive for banned performance-enhancing steroids.
Lewis, reigning world champion and world record-holder, did not get to defend his title because he finished sixth in the U.S. Olympic Trials. Witherspoon`s injury could move Lewis into a position on the 4×100-meter relay.
”There was no Carl. There was no Ben. This was my day,” Christie said.
This was only the eighth time in 23 runnings that a U.S. man has not won the Olympic 100. The last was in 1980, when the United States boycotted the Olympics and 28-year-old Alan Wells of Great Britain became the race`s oldest winner, until Christie.
”When it sinks in, I`m going to have a long cry,” Christie said.
”Winning the Olympics, being number one in the world, it has been a long, slow process.”
Christie and his family left Jamaica for England when he was 7. It took him nearly 20 more years to become 100-meter champion of Great Britain. Two years before that, at 24, he was not even good enough to be picked for a British relay at the 1984 Olympics.
Playing dominoes and living in the fast lane interested Christie more than running fast in a lane during his early 20s. That began to change when he joined a new coach, Ron Roddan, in 1985. A year later, he won the first of two European titles in the 100 and established himself as Europe`s fastest man.
That was not enough at the 1988 Olympics, where he finished behind Johnson and Lewis. Christie moved up a place after Johnson`s disqualification, but that silver medal nearly was tarnished by a doping affair.
Traces of the stimulant pseudoephedrine were found in Christie`s doping sample. The medical commission of the International Olympic Committee chose to give him the benefit of the doubt and determined the drug use was inadvertent and insignificant.
If pseudoephedrine had an effect on Christie`s 1988 performance, when he ran .01 slower (9.97) with a tailwind twice as strong as the one here, it was clearly far less than what steroids did for Johnson.
Johnson`s 10.70 in the semifinal was .91 slower than the discredited world record, which translates to a 9-meter difference in a 100-meter race. So much for assertions by Johnson`s ex-coach, Charlie Francis, that the drugs were worth 1 meter.
”I just came out slow out of the blocks,” Johnson said of this race.
”I lost my power.”
