By Scott M. Reid, The Orange County Register –
EUGENE, Ore. — At least one question hanging over Allyson Felix was answered Saturday night.
Felix broke Florence Griffith Joyner’s nearly quarter-century-old meet record with a blazing 21.69-second victory in the U.S. Olympic Trials 200-meter final, an emphatic victory that put to rest any concerns that the controversy surrounding her dead-heat in the Trials 100 with Jeneba Tarmoh would impact her performance.
“I felt like everything came together at the right time,” Felix said.
Well not quite everything.
Felix’s sixth U.S. 200 title was overshadowed by the controversy and the apparent growing divide between USA Track and field, the sport’s governing body, and Bob Kersee, Felix and Tarmoh’s coach, over when to hold a run-off between the sprinters.
Felix and Tarmoh finished in a dead-heat for the third and final spot in the Trials 100 final June 23. USAT officials Saturday night insisted the tie has to be broken, either by a run-off or coin toss, by tonight, the organization’s deadline for determining the U.S. team for London. The governing body’s stance Saturday was much firmer than a few days earlier when officials suggested they would be open to considering Kersee’s request to hold a run-off later in the week.
Kersee is just as adamant that his athletes will not participate in a run-off on Sunday.
“No way,” he said.
“(USATF officials) told me there’s going to be a run-off on Sunday,” Kersee continued. “And I said that’s not going to happen.
“If they’re going to ask for a run-off (today) after what these girls have put their bodies through it would be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of.”
Felix said she also favored waiting to hold the run-off.
“For anybody to compete (Sunday) would be very difficult,” she said. “We’re all a little physically and emotionally drained at this point.”
USATF officials and Kersee couldn’t even agree on when a decision would be made on how to proceed. USATF officials said a decision would be made Saturday night. Again Kersee said not so fast.
“I’m going to give them the night to sleep on it,” he said, referring to Felix and Tarmoh. “And we’ll meet for breakfast in the morning and decide what to do.”
This much USATF and Kersee seem to agree on.
“I just don’t think the world can accept a coin flip at this point,” Kersee said.
Indeed the controversy has often upstaged a week of record-setting performances and dramatic finishes in Tracktown.
“I asked Allyson about it,” Tarmoh said. “She said don’t worry about it. We’ll worry about it later.”
Felix certainly showed no signs of the issue weighing on her as she bolted off the turn, already opening up a wide lead. She finished nearly a half-second ahead of Carmelita Jeter, the World and Trials champion in the 100, at 22.11 with Sanya Richards-Ross, the Trials 400 winner, finishing in third at 22.22. Tarmoh was fifth at 22.35.
The victory was something of a breakthrough for Felix, who was first compared to Griffith Joyner while still a Southern California school girl.
But her performances on the track have not met the early expectations or lived up to the buzz created by a Nike campaign that helped make her the sport’s most transcendent star. She has won three World titles in the 200 but left the 2004 and 2008 Olympics with silver medals in the event.
Saturday on another chilly, wet Oregon night, Felix broke FloJo’s 21.77 meet record set at the 1988 Trials, clocking the fastest non-altitude 200 since 1991, the sixth fastest ever, leaping ahead of a list of former world-record holders and Olympic champions in the process.
“For so long I’ve looked at those times and I just kind of been inching along hoping to get up there one day,” Felix said. “But the job’s not done. It’s all about London.”
