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News30 Jun 1999


Maurice Greene looking for a new 100m world record

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Maurice Greene looking for a new 100m world record

1 July 1999 – Lausanne (AP) - The world's fastest man Maurice Greene will step into the starting blocks at the Athletissima track meet Friday with his sites set on lowering the 100-meter world record he demolished two weeks ago.

"A new record? Why not?" asked Greene, who ran a blistering 9.79 in Greece, shattering Canadian Donovan Bailey's old mark of 9.84.

"The world record in Athens was only a step in my career. "I've already set myself a new goal: to cross the line 9.76. And once achieve it, I'll try and improve on that."

The same field that pushed Greene to the record in Athens will once again line up in an all-star 100m clash on the lightning-quick Pontaise track that Leroy Burrell set a world record on five years ago.

Greene was spurred on in Athens by training partner and world 200m champion Ato Boldon (who finished runner-up behind Greene in 9.86), Olympic silver medallist Frankie Fredericks of Namibia and red-hot Canadian Bruny Surin, who clocked the third-fastest time this season of 9.92, and has run under 10 seconds his last three races. Surin also ran a wind-assisted 9.88 at the Canadian championships last week. The same four men will line up in the featured race Friday, running in a qualification heat before the final.

An on-form Greene, racing in Europe for the first time since setting the world mark, has won the 100m at the Athletissima meet the last two years.

The women's 100m will feature American sprint sensation Marion Jones, who will be chasing four gold medals at the upcoming World Championships in Seville, Spain in August.

Jones, fresh off a win in the 200m at the Golden League meet in Oslo on Wednesday, has not yet dominated the short sprint as she did last season, and can expect to be tested by her powerful Greek rival Ekaterini Thanou and compatriot Inger Miller.

The European bronze medallist, Thanou has clocked two of the fastest times this season, including a 10.91 and 10.92 in Athens. Miller ran a wind-assisted 10.77 earlier this year. All three women have run under 11 seconds this season.

Double Olympic champion Michael Johnson, recently recovered from a leg injury, will begin his European season in the 400m at the Stade Olympique de la Pontaise.

Johnson was forced to pull out of a 200m showdown against Greene at the United States championships last weekend, after straining his right quadricep during training.

Ranked among the greatest track athletes of all time, Johnson is the defending 400m world champion, and raced to a historic double at the Olympics in Atlanta - shattering the 200m record in the process.

Johnson is now focused on breaking American Butch Reynolds' 400 metre world record of 43.29 seconds, which has stood for 11 years.

While the sprint events attract most of the attention in Lausanne, the 3000m will feature an intriguing duel between world record holder Daniel Komen of Kenya and compatriot Paul Tergat, the five-time cross country world champion.

The 23-year-old Komen set the world mark three years ago, when he clocked 7:20.67 in Rieti, Italy.

Jeff Hartwig, the only American to go over 6 metres in the pole vault, arrives in Switzerland looking to improve on his 6.02m effort at the U.S. championships last week.

Olympic champion Jean Galfione of France, who won the world indoors at the start of the season with a 6.0m jump and Belarus' Dmitriy Markov, who has also sailed over six metres this season, will provide the competition.

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