Speed trio race for medals

TRINIDAD and Tobago’s top sprinters Darrel Brown, Mark Burns and Jacey Harper will go into action today for precious metal at the International Athletics Association Federations (IAAF) tenth World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. The speed trio will be among 3,000 athletes from 196 countries who will be vying for top honours in the world’s biggest athletics meeting. Brown clocked 10.08 secs and distinguished himself at the 2003 World Championships when he copped the silver in the 100 metres dash which was won by Kittitian Kim Collins in 10.07 in a very tight finish. The former TT world junior sprint champion and record holder will be aiming to repeat and even create a major upset by winning the race and the coveted gold medal, which will put him ahead of his rivals and into the record books as the youngest world sprint champion.

The 20-year-old registered his personal best when he clocked 9.99 secs in the National Amateur Athletics Association (NAAA) Sagicor Senior Championships held last month at the Hasely Crawford Stadium at Mucurapo. Brown finished second to compatriot Burns who also clocked his personal best of 9.96 secs. Both Silver Bullet Track Club sprinters created history by becoming the first two athletes to electronically register sub-10s in the premier sprint event. Former international star Ato Boldon and ex-American world and Olympics champion Maurice Greene were soundly whipped by the fleet-footed Brown in the semi-finals at the 2003 World Championships in Paris. And to stamp his class and ability as the world’s best-ever junior champion sprinter, Brown defied a pulled thigh-muscle to beat the then reigning 100-metre record holder Tim Montgomery and European sprint champion Dwain Chambers in the 2003 final in the 70,000-seater Stade de France arena.

Englishman Chambers was fourth while Montgomery placed fifth in 10.11 secs and his fellow American champion Bernard Williams occupied sixth position with 10.13 secs. Chambers admitted using banned performance enhancing substances and is currently on suspension while Montgomery has been accused and is being investigated for also travelling the same route as Chambers. Both are being implicated with the US-based BALCO scandal which has affected the lives of some of the most outstanding sports personalities in the United States and elsewhere. Brown entered his name as the youngest athlete to reach the final of  a world championship event at age 18 years 318 days on August 26, 2003. He also became the youngest athlete to win a medal at the prestigious Championships.

He missed individual action in the 2004 Athens Olympics where Americans Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford whipped the others to claim gold and bronze respectively in the marquee event of those Games. Both American sprinters will showcase their talent at these biennial championships which started in 1983. They will start as the pre-race favourites to make it one-two for the Americans. Gatlin has been in ominous form this season and the 23-year-old would be out to prove that his Olympics victory was well-merited. Jamaica’s new world 100-metre record holder Asafa Powell is out of contention because of injury to his leg. But both Gatlin and Crawford whipped him convincingly in the Athens Both Brown and compatriot Burns will be seeking to stop an American sweep as their third choice Leonard Scott clocked a personal best of 9.94 secs two weeks ago.

Their mission starts today with eight heats listed for the 100 metres event. Brown will race in Heat Three which also has Jamaican Dwight Thomas who has been a consistent performer during the season. At the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Championships, Brown and Burns raced away with the gold and silver medals in a new Games record time of 10.02 secs. Burns reversed the positions with Brown at the newly-refurbished Helsinki mondo track two weeks ago. And the 21-year-old Burns is listed for Heat Six and will race in lane six. Harper who placed third at the National Senior Championships in a new personal best of 10.10 secs will be racing in heat five. Once he can reproduce another fast timing, he should advance to the quarter-final rounds which are scheduled for later in the evening.

He has the toughest heat with the likes of American Scott, Barbadian Obadele Thompson and Nigerian 2003 World Championships finalist Uchenna Emadolu. The semi-finals and final are carded for tomorrow. Kittitian Collins, the defending champion, is also in the fray and will also be aiming to prove his worth as he races in Heat Seven while Athens Olympics silver medallist Francis Obikwelu races with Crawford (Olympics bronze medallist) in Heat One.