Allen Johnson of the USA wins the 110m hurdles (© Getty Images)
“Bad timing is my life story.” So bemoaned Allen Johnson after his fourth World Championships gold medal in Paris on Saturday night.
The affable American knows full well that the Sunday headlines won’t be about his 110 Metres Hurdle win but rather “l’affaire Kelli White” and that again his efforts will be overshadowed. “Whether I get the headlines or not, I’m happy,” he exclaimed to reporters jamming the (athlete/press) mixed zone under the stadium.
With his fourth victory, Johnson pulled even with a family namesake, the legendary Michael, in equaling the World Championships record for wins in the same running event, one which they share with distance runner Haile Gebrselassie.
“It was hard. Not the best race I’ve ever run, but I won and I was happy with that,” the 32-year-old Johnson said afterwards. “I got a little off balance over the first two hurdles, and after that I just did what I could to stay ahead of Terrence (Trammell). I wasn’t even thinking about the time [13.12], just about winning. I was nervous because I really wanted to get that fourth title.”
By comparison, Johnson used the same Stade de France track for the season’s best time of 12.97 in early July when the stakes were considerably lower than today.
Trammell, Johnson’s training partner under coach Curtis Frye, ran a season-best 13.20 in only his fourth competition of the year to take the silver medal, matching the colour of the one he won in Sydney. Injured in the World Indoor Championships, Trammell started his outdoor season only at the US championships, where he finished second to Johnson.
“Tonight was only the second time we’ve ever raced each other in a major world final,” said Johnson, obviously pleased not to have repeated the fourth-place finish he recorded in their other meeting at the 2000 Olympics.
Only a brilliant run of 13.23 by 20-year-old Liu Xiang of China broke up a US medal sweep, as Americans Larry Wade and Chris Phillips enveloped the Asian star with places four and five.
Tonight’s winning time was the slowest of Johnson’s quartet of victories and evidently one accomplished under what he feels was unnecessary duress. On that theme, the usually soft-spoken Johnson digressed from the line of questioning with some harsh words for those responsible for the competition schedule.
“They positioned our final at probably the worst possible time today. We were forced to warm up in a small area on the far side of the warm-up track so that the laggards in the marathon could finish. And there were also god-knows-how-many relay runners out there, too, trying to use all four corners of the track.
“We eight hurdlers were the only athletes going for a medal who were in the warm-up field at the time, but yet we were treated with total disrespect.”
Not so by the rest of Johnson’s US teammates, who accorded him the honour of carrying the flag in the opening ceremonies in Paris, one of the few times Johnson has rounded a curve on a running track.
Along with his four golds in the World Championships, the Washington, DC, native also has the top prize from the Atlanta Olympics. So, it would seem that the major item missing from his resumé is the World record, currently a ten-year-old dinosaur at 12.91 (by the recently retired Colin Jackson) which barely eluded him at the 1996 US Olympic Trials, when he sped to a 12.92.
“It’s definitely something I’m shooting for, but I’m basically just trying to win races. I told myself after last year that I’m not making it a high priority item. But if a day comes when I win a race and it happens to be a 12.91, then I’ll be pleased with that.”
Johnson would seem to have lots of opportunities to catch the record if his plans to compete through the 2008 Olympics, come to fruition. That would see him at age 37, and could conceivably put him on the medal stand once again with Liu, whose fast maturity as a hurdler has caught Johnson’s attention.
“While I was in Lausanne last year warming up, I saw him in the B-race. Right after the gun, I saw him separating himself from the pack, and I thought those other guys were really running slow. Then I saw the clock read 13.12,” the same as Johnson’s winning time tonight. And Liu will only be 25 when his home country hosts those Olympic Games.
Another World Championships win two years from now, in 2005, would make Johnson unique among track-event athletes with a fifth title in a single discipline. It’s a date that is already on his planning calendar.
“I will have a ‘bye’ into the Helsinki championships, so I won’t have to worry about nationals when I’ll be 34 years old. Hopefully, I’ll be able to rest myself a little bit more that year.”
