Jeremy Wariner doesn't handle losing with grace

EUGENE, Ore. -- Jeremy Wariner skipped the traditional victory lap after the men's 400 team was determined Thursday at the U.S. Olympic trials, leaving winner LaShawn Merritt and surprise third-place finisher David Neville to soak up the adulation of the crowd at Hayward Field.

Wariner, the 2004 Olympic 400-meter champion and two-time world champion, also skipped the post-race news conference. That left an empty seat next to Merritt and Neville, whose 44 seconds flat and 44.61 were sandwiched around Wariner's 44.20.

To lose is forgivable. To sulk is not.

More than an hour after the race, long after Merritt and Neville had declared the U.S. men poised to sweep the 400 in Beijing and had taken their flowers and medals to wherever they planned to celebrate, Wariner emerged from his self-imposed seclusion with a steady voice and obvious regrets.

His trademark dark sunglasses were pushed atop his head, revealing that his eyes were dry. But he was still sorting through his emotions, wondering where things went wrong and how he can fix them before Beijing.

He was asked if the problem had been his shoes.

No.

"I've been wearing these shoes all season," he said.

Nor, he said, could his runner-up finish be blamed on his controversial decision to leave longtime mentor Clyde Hart for Michael Ford earlier this year. Wariner, despite continued success, had offered Hart a new contract that called for a pay cut.

"That happened in February. This is June," Wariner said, his tone biting. "The whole coaching situation is over."

And maybe it isn't.

Though Merritt has beaten Wariner before, notably at a Golden League meet in Berlin on June 1, this loss clearly gnawed at him.

"I tried to make a move at 150 [meters] and I should have waited a little longer," said Wariner, who usually has a strong finishing kick but couldn't cut into Merritt's lead coming off the curve.

"It wasn't strategy. I just didn't execute right."

He didn't mean to snub Merritt and Neville when he didn't join them in the victory lap, he said.

That doesn't matter. He still came off as a bad loser, even if he did win a spot on the Olympic team.

"At the moment I was disappointed with the way I ran," he said. "I needed to calm down a little bit."

Merritt, with great generosity, said he didn't think less of Wariner for skipping the public celebration.

"He's not a poor sportsman at all," Merritt said. "He congratulated me. I told him congratulations.

"At the end of the race we all congratulated each other. And we're all going to Beijing, and that's what matters."