CARSON, California — A referee’s reprieve kept Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin’s World Championship bid on track despite a seemingly fatal false start on Friday, but Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery saw their Helsinki hopes end at the US athletics championships.
The dramas in the flat sprints — including a spate of false starts in the men’s 100m — couldn’t overshadow a fine 110m hurdles final, in which four-time world champion Allen Johnson won in the fastest time in the world this year, 12.99sec, ahead of Dominique Arnold in 13.01 and Terrence Trammell in 13.02 — the second- and third-fastest times of the season.
With his performance in the chilly Home Depot Center, Johnson threw down the gauntlet to China’s Liu Xiang, who won Olympic gold in a world record-equaling 12.91 after Johnson crashed out in the quarterfinals.
Gatlin’s hopes of adding the world crown to his Olympic 100m gold appeared to have ended in sensational fashion when he was disqualified for the second false start in heat one of the men’s 100m.
Gatlin immediately protested and meeting referee Ed Gorman reviewed the start and ruled that movement by a runner next to Gatlin, Mark Jelks, may have contributed to Gatlin’s false start and advanced him to the semifinals.
Shawn Crawford posted the fastest first-round time, winning his heat in 10.10sec.
Maurice Greene won his heat in 10.12, and Greene’s training partner Leonard Scott won his heat in 10.20. But the 100m semifinal line-up was still missing some notable names. Bernard Williams, 2004 Olympic silver medalist in the 200m, was disqualified for a false start in the second heat.
Former world record-holder Montgomery didn’t have to worry about the starter, having decided Friday morning to scratch from his only event. His agent, Charles Wells, said Montgomery didn’t feel well enough prepared to run.Montgomery’s companion Jones, who has been tainted by the BALCO scandal without facing any formal charge by anti-doping officials, turned out for the women’s 100m, but after two practice starts the five-time Olympic medalist picked up her belongings from behind her starting blocks and strode from the track.
