Photo Finish
by Eric Everett
It took a computer to tell whether LaShawn or arch rival Jeremy Wariner had won the 400m final at Rome's Golden Gala, and in the end, it was Wariner by the slightest of margins.
The pride of Virginia fell by .01 of a second to Wariner, setting the stage for a tremendous Olympic showdown in Bejing.
As the Associated Press reported:
In the 400, Wariner beat Merritt in a photo finish a week after Merritt stunned the Olympic and two-time world champion at the U.S. Olympic trials.
This time, Wariner won in 44.36 seconds — one-hundredth ahead of Merritt.
"I got out strong. I worked my tires. I finally executed like I should have at trials," Wariner said.
He held a slight lead rounding the last turn and went ahead by a stride midway down the final straight, but Merritt made a late charge to force the photo finish.
A STRONG PERFORMANCE
While Wariner seemed content with result, LaShawn expressed some satisfaction with the result, seeing it a progress toward the gold medal race in China.
“I started to lean a little too early. That’s ok. You live, you run, you learn. I did what I came to do. I feel good, so that’s all that matters.”
Not too shaken by the defeat, Merritt said that the final 50 metres of the race, when he managed to cut his rival’s lead to mere inches, was the shape of things to come.
“He was ahead at 300; I knew how the race was going to play out...I feel good about the race and as you can see, the part of the race that I’ve been working on is coming, the finish. So when I put it together, there’s going to be problems.”
RELATED STORIES
By mere inches, Wariner takes round three (IAAF.org, July 12, 2008)
http://www.iaaf.org/GLE08/news/newsid=46023.html
Wariner gets revenge on Merritt (Associated Press, July 11, 2008)
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iIHQ1LwjEM36P_v7uYsIQ8S1z80wD91S21280
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