Jeremy Wariner - 43.45 in Osaka (© Getty Images)
World champion Jeremy Wariner said he expects to open his Olympic 400m title defence with a 44-second run at the Melbourne Grand Prix, but will prime his season with a 200m race at the Sydney Grand Prix this Saturday, 16 February.
The Sydney Athletics Grand Prix is one of a select group of Area meetings at which points can be acquired by athletes to qualify for the 2008 IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final to be held on 13-14 September in Stuttgart.
"I'm hoping to open with my 200m in the mid-20s, maybe even lower and hopefully in the 400m break 45, open up with a nice 44. The last few seasons I've opened up with a 44 so hopefully I can continue," Wariner said on his arrival in Sydney today.
"I've done a lot more hard training this year than I've done before. Of course this being an Olympic year we're going to buckle down and do serious...my start can get better so we'll see on Saturday how it goes in the 200. I'm working on my speedwork, I'm a little stronger than last year and I'm working on my finish."
Coaching change “not serious”
Wariner shrugged off suggestions that his much-publicised split with long-time Baylor coach Clyde Hart might adversely affect him and was something of a risk, especially in an all-important Olympic year.
"The change hasn't been serious. It's just a new coach for me," he said, referring to Mike Ford, the man who actually recruited him from high school to attend Baylor and has worked for eight years under the venerated Hart.
"I'm still doing the same workouts, so nothing's changed. I've got a workout partner now. The last few years I've trained by myself. Having a training partner like Darold Williamson (a 400 finalist at the 2005 Helsinki World Championships) who is on the same level as me is going to benefit me.
"When coach Hart couldn't make it, coach Mike Ford was there for me at the Olympics. He knows exactly what I've done."
Speed work
Wariner said that while he continues progressively to work every aspect of his race, he believes improving his 200m speed is paramount to his prospects of improving his 400m to World record level.
"Now that we're training more for the 200 to help my 400, my 200 is getting faster," said Wariner, who ran a wind-aided 20.41 before arriving at Baylor and has since lowered his best to 20.18.
"For me it is the key to progressing in the 400m," Wariner explained. "The way my running style is, I think it's the key. I'm more of a speed runner than a strength runner so I need the speed a little bit, at the same time as I build the strength.”
"It's a lot of hard work at practice, a lot of over-distance that we do. I try to work harder than what I'm supposed to.”
"My coach wants me to come through in a certain time in practice and I try to come through ahead of it. I try to hold onto the same pace for the rest of the workout just so I can build my strength up.”
"That's a big part of why I'm strong in my race and why I'm fast in my race.”
"I always try to over-achieve in my training to break the world record and be the greatest 400m runner of all time."
Onward to 2016
There must be something to that because at only 24, Wariner already has two World titles and an Olympic gold medal at 400. He talked today about competing through to the 2016 Olympics which he hoped would give him a chance to compete before a home crowd.
Before then though he hopes and even expects to have broken another mentor, Michael Johnson's World 400 record of 43.18. These days Johnson acts as Wariner's track agent, while another former 400m star, Deon Minor, is his manager.
"I could definitely break 43 seconds. That's my goal: to be the first one to run 42 seconds," Wariner declared.
"I'm not going to rush things and try and force everything in one year. I'm going to gradually build up, each year to work on the same things to get better in each part of my race."
He was less certain about just to race model that historic sub-43 because of his experiences splitting both fast and moderate 200m times in transit, yet emerging with nearly the same end time at 400m.
"Honestly no. One race I ran 20.8 through the 200 and I ran 43.45 at World champs (in Osaka 2007). At Stockholm I was like 21.1 and ran 43.5. I have a range," he understated.
"If I go slower through the first 200 I know my next 200 is going to be faster of course. A lot depends on the track, the conditions and the field I have."
While Commonwealth Games champion John Steffensen has advised Athletics Australia he will not compete in Sydney or Melbourne - two of the three meets along with the Australian championships (February 28 - March 2) which are compulsory under the Olympic selection criteria - Wariner said he would respect whomever he runs against.
"Honestly, whenever I run a race it doesn't matter who I'm running against," Wariner stressed. "It could be high school kids, it could be the best in the world. I'm always going to run the same race. Every person in the race, I treat them as the same athlete - there's always a chance they could beat me. Just because they're not the top five in the world I'm not going to slack off and not run my race."
Offering a rare insight into some of his training, Wariner was quick to reply to the question of which session is his toughest.
"The workout I hate the most? My over-distance, of course," he said with a wide smile. "Anything over 400. We gradually build down throughout the season, so we'll start off doing 1000m. We'll do two of those.”
"And then work our way down so that by the time we're about two months away from the US trials we'll be down running 450s and run 450s for the rest of the year. We do no more than two (450s).”
"We do 10mins recovery between the 1000s. All our over-distance always has the same rest. We pretty much work on a steady tempo.”
"Coach wants us to come through the 400 at a certain pace and from there on try to keep up that same pace or try to pick it up if you can.”
"The pace varies, depending on the weather, what time of season it is, if you've got a meet coming up. It all depends. One day we might do a 600 coming through in about 60 for the quarter, one day we might do 58 for the quarter."
Williamson to act as main test in Sydney but new Aussie hope sidelined
Wariner's training partner Darold Williamson will contest the 400 at the Sydney meet at Sydney Olympic Park on Saturday, but new local hero Joel Milburn is a highly doubtful starter.
Milburn clocked 45.19 in a huge breakthrough to take an early world lead last weekend, but failed to finish a training session on Tuesday night, pulling up with painful tendinitis on the outside of his right knee.
"There's probably a 90 per cent chance I won't run Sydney, just to be cautious, but I'll be good for Melbourne and the nationals," Milburn said in anticipation of facing Wariner at the WAT meeting in Melbourne.
McLellan also injured
While Milburn, 21, has been the revelation of the Australian summer season, Queensland's Sally McLellan, also 21, has posted world class times in the 100m hurdles and, sadly, she too is injured.
Results on an MRI scan today revealed a 3-4cm tear at the junction of the muscle and tendon in the biceps femorus of McLellan's left leg.
"She's devastated," McLellan's coach Sharon Hannan said after breaking the bad news of the scan results to her young champion.
"The tear is considered low grade but still requires three to four weeks rehabilitation. That's her domestic season over."
Mike Hurst (Sydney Daily Telegraph) for the IAAF