Boldon (almost) cracks it in Walnut
Trinidad's Ato Boldon ran 2-hundredths short of Donovan Bailey's 100m record on
Sunday in the Mount SAC relays meeting in California. Aided by a 1.8m/s tailwind, Boldon, who is reigning world champion in the
200m, recorded a time of 9.86 and forecast that the record would go under 9.80 before the
end of the season: "We got to get this record under 9.8," said Boldon, "I
told John ( John Smith -trainer of both Boldon and Maurice Greene) that if the wind was
anywhere near 2.0m/s there was going to be a world record".
Training partner and 100m world champion Maurice Greene was equally bullish after his 20.03 victory in the 200m: "Me and Ato have a plan," Greene said. "I'm going to break it first and he's going to break it second, and I'm going to break it a third time and have it at the end of the year." Asked if Boldon agreed on that account, Greene laughed, "That's my plan, I don't know what his plan is."
Both marks were world bests for this early stage of the outdoor season.
Excellent performance from John Godina, world champion in Athens in the shot put. He won both shot and dicus events in Walnut, with 21.78m and 66.47m - the best double throw performance in history and, again, the best world marks so far this year.
Women's 100m world champion Marion Jones ran her first competitive 400m since she was 15 years old and recorded an excellent 50.36, second-fastest time this year.
Meanwhile, in a meeting in his home town of Waco, on Saturday, Michael Johnson made his season's debut with a modest 45.04 in the 400m
