By Christopher Hunt
Photos by Tim Fulton
EUGENE, Ore. – Tyson Gay pulled up about 40 meters into the 200-meter semifinals and crashed to the track, holding his left leg. He was carted off in a wheelchair and is out of the 200 for the Beijing, Olympics.
At first, it appeared that Gay had pulled his hamstring but his agent Mark Wetmore said Gay suffered a severe cramp in his left hamstring and that there was no other apparent damage. He will likely undergo an MRI as a precaution. He did say that he felt tightness in his leg during his warm-up.
After laying on the track holding his leg he was carried off and taken to his hotel.
“Before I went out on the track I felt a little tightness in my hamstring,” Gay said. “So I had kind of a bad feeling. When I came off the curve the first two steps were fine, and then I felt it sort of pull, about 40 meters in. Once I was on the ground it didn’t’ hurt as much as when it happened.”
Gay, the World champ in the 100 and 200, has the second fastest time in history in the 200 meters (19.62). He won the 100 meters Sunday in a wind-aided 9.68 seconds, the fastest time ever record under any conditions. He broke Maurice Greene’s American record a day earlier in 9.77.
Gay does have time to recover if what happened proves to only be a bad cramp. His only scheduled competition from now until the Olympics is the London Grand Prix July 24-25. He seemed to be in his best shape after the 100-meter rounds.
“It’s just one of those things that happens,” he said.
With Gay out, the team loses its best shot at a 200 gold medal although Wallace Spearmon easily advanced into the final. He owns the third fastest time in history, 19.65.
“It definitely made you want to sit a little bit (in the blocks),” Spearmon said of Gay’s fall. “In the other athletes minds it’s like a red flag that you want to be careful.”
It was Gay’s sixth race of the week, including four rounds of the 100 and the qualifying heats of the 200 yesterday. Walter Dix went through the same rounds and said the races are starting to dig into his legs as well.
“I know he’s legs are hurting because my legs are hurting,” Dix said. “The rounds are an issue. It really takes a lot out of you to come back and run that many rounds.”
Spearmon (pictured left) also said that running as fastest as many did in the 100 final – six runners broke 10 seconds – has an affect on the body. He remembered Obadele Thompson saying that his body was never the same after running a wind-aided 9.69, which was previously the fastest-time ever recorded before Gay’s run.
“That’s a lot of 9’s in that race,” Spearmon said. “I did it (broke 10 seconds) for the fist time last year and for two or three days I was in the ice bath sore all over. My toes were sore. My neck was sore. My ears were sore.”
Gay’s situation didn’t only call into question the amount of rounds the sprinters have to endure to make the team but the selection process as well. A potentially healthy Gay could be watching the Olympic 200-final excluding the team’s fastest runner. A multitude of things can happen before the Trials or during which can keep out the best athlete in a particular event.
“It’s a strange sport in that way that you get one shot to make the team,” said Dan O’Brien, who no-heighted in the decathlon pole vault and missed the Olympic team despite being one of the top decathletes in the world.
“I like what Sanya Richards said in her interview that there’s got to be some other way to make the team. It’s the fairest thing to do (running the trials) but you don’t always get the best athletes.”
In many other countries, a committee selects a team to represent at the Olympics. In the U.S., it’s top-three or bust. Either way, the 200 final will have a different look Sunday.
“It’s an open spot,” Dix said. “Everybody’s going to be fighting for that spot.”
RIGHT: Walter Dix of Florida State
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
By Christopher Hunt
Photos by Tim Fulton