Brown glitters with silver

DARREL BROWN, Trinidad and Tobago’s new junior world record holder, produced a remarkable burst of speed and awesome finishing power yesterday to grab the silver medal in the men’s 100 metres at the 9th IAAF World Champion-ships at the Stade de France, Paris. It was an historic and memorable performance by the teenager who has firmly established himself as the world’s second best senior 100-metre sprinter for the year. And at 18 years and 318 days, Brown becomes the youngest athlete to ever win an individual medal at the World Senior Outdoor Championships. He clocked 10.08 secs and was pipped by one-hundredth of a second by Kittitian Common-wealth champion Kim Collins who made it a Caribbean one-two by clocking 10.07. It was a blanket finish with Englishmen Darren Campbell, the new bronze-medallist, and Dwain Chambers (fourth) also timed at 10.08 secs. No other 100-metre final at the World Championships  was as close as yesterday’s and it took the photo-finish camera to separate the medallists.

Running in lane four and with the second slowest start of the eight finalists, Brown recovered admirably and give it his all to catch the fast advancing pack at about the 85-metre mark. He held his nerve and momentum in the final three strides but was narrowly edged out by Collins for the coveted gold medal as they leaned over the finishing line. The Trinidadian “Golden Boy” proved his world-class sprinting ability and yesterday he finally announced to the world that he is now ready for another slice of history at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He whipped the reigning European champion Chambers (10.08) who placed fourth and the current American world 100-metre record holder Tim Montgomery who finished fifth with a 10.11 secs timing and the reigning American champion Bernard Williams (10.13) who occupied sixth spot. Three hours earlier he raced to second spot behind European champion Chambers (10.06) in the second semi-final in 10.11 for a place in the final. He became the youngest athlete to qualify for the showpiece event of these biennial competition. Brown also eliminated two of the most dominant world-rated sprinters of the 90s. Former world record holder and reigning Olympic champion Maurice Greene (10.30) placed seventh in his semi-final race while compatriot Ato

Boldon clocked 10.22 and was sixth. Greene was dethroned and with Boldon, became spectators in the final. Brown was elated and proud with his victory but has his eyes set at astride the medal podium once again in the 4x100 metres relay. “I am happy and proud. I wanted to be in the final and I achieved my goal,” he said after the race. On Sunday, he clocked 10.01, which erased Chambers’ previous world junior record of 10.06 secs set in 1997 at the European Junior Championships. His parents, Winston Brown (father) and Tobago-born Marilyn Jack Brown (mother), were in the stands at the impressive 71,000-seater Stade de France (55,000 for athletics) sharing the history-making events of their immensely-talented son who once again brought glory to Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean peoples. 100 Metres Final Results. 1Kim Collins (SKN)- 10.07 secs ; 2  DARREL BROWN (TT)- 10.08; 2 Darren Campbell (GB)- 10.08; 3 Dwain Chambers (GB)- 10.08; 4 Tim Montgomery (USA)- 10.11; 5 Bernard Williams (USA)- 10.13; 6 Deji Aliu (NGR)- 10.21; 7 Uchenna Emodulu (NGR)- 10.22.