Michael Johnson promotes the Paris Golden League meeting (© Courtesy of L'Equipe)
Paris, FranceFriday 18 July 2008 will be a special date for the Gaz de France Paris Saint-Denis meeting, the fourth leg of the ÅF Golden League series, as it will mark its tenth anniversary and meeting organisers are determined to put together an unforgettable show both on and off the track.
On the track, meeting director Gérard Rousselle who is aiming to assemble the best possible field is already well on his way as several World champions, including Tyson Gay, Jeremy Wariner, Blanka Vlasic, Tirunesh Dibaba and Sanya Richards, have already confirmed their presence.
Off the track there will be, along with live entertainment, the added value of 10 living legends, an Ambassador for each of the ten events which will be staged: Bob Beamon for the men’s Long Jump, Hicham El Guerrouj for the men’s 1500m, Edwin Moses for the men’s 400m Hurdles, Svetlana Masterkova for the women’s 800m and Jan Zelezny for the men’s Javelin to name but a few.
But the first living legend to support the Paris meeting was IAAF Ambassador Michael Johnson who was the special guest star of today’s press conference held on a luxurious river boat facing the imposing Eiffel Tower.
Focus on 400m
A five-time Olympic gold medallist and nine-time World champion, Johnson was flanked by French Olympic hopeful Leslie Djhone, the 400m national record holder who will face Johnson’s protégé, double World champion Jeremy Wariner at the Paris meet.
“It is an honour for me to be able to come to Paris and to be able to promote my sport,” said Johnson. “I’m looking forward to the season ahead and to watching great races here.”
“Jeremy has dominated his event for the last four years,” he explained to Djhone. “But he hasn’t been without challenge. LaShawn Merrit is always there, Leslie is there. Jeremy knows that it’s not easy, that no one is ever going to hand him anything.”
Dhjone couldn’t but agree with Johnson: “Jeremy’s technique is faultless, he’s very impressive. He runs like a metronome and his last 100 metres is something special. He’s such a strong finisher. But I wouldn’t train as hard as I do if I didn’t think I had a chance of winning… I wonder what would happen if someone was with him with 50 metres to go…”
He didn’t need to look far to get an answer to his question: “Jeremy is very focused and he’s not afraid. He has this special ability to turn over very quickly so sometimes someone seems to be close to him and then suddenly they’re not close anymore!”
“If someone was with him at 20 metres to go, then there could be a problem. But you gotta be with him at 20 metres and that’s no easy task!!”
Johnson: ‘Athletes often put too many limits on themselves’
As it has become customary when Johnson is around, it is inevitable to talk about World records and in this case there was much discussions about his two World records.
“I cannot tell you which of my two World records will be broken first but I can tell you which one is more difficult to break. I believe the 200m is more difficult. When you look at the history of the event, you see that Lee Evans ran under 44 seconds back in 1968. It shouldn’t be so difficult to break 44 seconds nowadays but somehow the event hasn’t moved as fast as it should have. When Butch Reynolds set his 43.29 he broke a mark that was 20 years old, it shouldn’t have taken that long!
“But the 400 is a tough race. To run 43 you have to have a lot of strength and a lot of speed. It takes a tremendous amount of focus to be up there and run consistently like Jeremy does. “
“The 200m right now is the best of the sprint events to watch because there is so much competition. Until Xavier Carter ran 19.6 a few years ago everyone thought it was impossible to run as fast as I did. Now there is Tyson, there is Wallace. Now the event is where it should be. Athletes often put too many limits on themselves. But they should know better, there are no limits!”
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
Click here for more information
Due to previous commitments Michael Johnson will not be able to attend the Meet on 18 July.