Gatlin And Gay Gear For A Meeting With Usain Bolt

Knowing oh too well about the history of the rivalry between Jamaican track and field team and the TeamUSA, the thought about the Men's 100m and 200m finals brings with it a certain adrenaline rush.  Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay Monday qualified for the London Olympics with sub-9.90 second times at the US trials.  2004 Olympic champion, Gatlin, clocked 9.80 in the 100m ahead of Gay, who finished in 9.86. They are both waiting to profit from a Jamaican Usain Bolt slip up.

But with recent news out of Usian Bolt's camp, Bolt is not planning on slipping up not one bit, even breaking bad habits of getting more sleep.  The US team's third sprinter will be Ryan Bailey, whose time of 9.93 was one hundredth of a second ahead of Michael Rodgers.  The first five to finish all dipped under 10 seconds, with Darvis Patton finishing in 9.96.  It will be Gatlin's first Olympics since Athens, having missed the 2008 Beijing games due to a doping ban. 

"I have a lot left in the tank. This season so far has been undefeated and I'm just trying to ride that wave," said Gatlin.

Dwain Chambers won the Aviva 2012 UK trials on Saturday, but his time of 10.25 was seven hundredths of a second outside the 'A' qualification time he required. The final place in the women's 100m US team will be decided by either a run-off or the toss of a coin after Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh finished in a dead heat for third place.

With no tie-break procedure included in their regulations, USA Track and Field announced that both athletes will be given the choice of their preferred method. World champion, Carmelita Jeter and Tianna Madison took the first two places.LaShawn Merritt recorded the fastest time in the world this year to win the men's 400m. The 2008 Olympic champion, also returning from a doping ban, finished in 44.86 ahead of Tony McQuay and Bryshon Nellum , who both recorded personal bests to complete the US trio in the event. In the women's event, Sanya Richards-Ross also recorded a world-best for 2012 so far with a time of 49.28 to finish comfortably ahead of DeeDee Trotter and Francena McCorory.

Allyson Felix's Future To Be Decided By Coin Toss

As the excitement brews ahead of the London 2012 Olympics,  what was supposed to have been an exciting track meet to select the  US track and field squad, turned out to take on another drama of its own.  After thousands of photographs taken within a second could not determine who placed third in a race for a spot on the U.S. Olympic track and field team, the tie may be broken by a coin toss.

Allyson Felix and Jenebah Tarmoh finished in a dead heat in Saturday’s 100-meter race, and only one of them could be granted a berth on the team in this summer’s London Games. The tie caught USA Track and Field officials off-guard, and for most of Sunday, the outcome was anyone’s guess.  But Sunday night, USA Track and Field spokeswoman Jill Geer outlined a detailed procedure  that gave Felix and Tarmoh a choice: They could either sprint in a one-on-one runoff or a flip a coin.

The runners will not decide until after they compete in the 200-meter, their coach, Bob Kersee, said. The preliminaries for the 200 begin Thursday, and the final is on Saturday.  Initially, the track timer ruled that Felix, who has won three Olympic medals, had lost by a thousandth of a second. But officials revised the results shortly afterward, and while a tie-breaking procedure existed for preliminary events, no rule could be found for a race for an Olympic berth.  Kersee said the two athletes, whose strict regimens would make an extra race burdensome, need to focus on the upcoming 200, according to Reuters.  Track officials “need to leave my athletes alone, and let me coach them in the 200, then make a decision,” Kersee told Reuters early Sunday, adding that he would take no part in determining who would earn the spot on the team. “It would be like, ‘Which kid do you love the most?’”

USA Track and Field’s nearly 800-word document announcing the tie-breaking procedure stipulates that in the event of a coin toss, the coin must be a quarter with George Washington on one side and an eagle on the other. The athlete with the highest world ranking, Felix, will call heads or tails.