Gay’s coach says no more

The idea for Tyson Gay was to run one and be done.

As defending world champion in two events, the 100 and 200 meters, Gay needed only compete in one round of any event at the U.S. championships to claim his place in both sprints at the world championships at Berlin in August.

Gay chose the 100 and ran Thursday’s first round in a substantially wind-aided 9.75 seconds, fastest in the world this year under any conditions.

But Gay was so upset about the way he ran that he wanted more.

As Gay expected, his coach, Jon Drummond, said no mas. Gay will have to wait until a race in Europe next month to test himself again.

Given the tail wind of 3.4 meters per second, it was hard to put Gay’s time in an accurate context, other than to note that it is the seventh-fastest ever, wind or not. Fastest is the 9.68 he ran at the 2008 Olympic trials with a 4.1 tail wind -- more than double the 2.0 allowed for record purposes.

“This tells me my wheels are there,” Gay said. Nothing else was, in his estimation.

“Honestly, it was a horrible race,” he said. “Technically horrible. My focus was horrible. The false start threw me off a little.”

At least Gay exorcised any lingering demons about running at Hayward Field, where he needed to be wheeled off the track after his previous race -- the 200 quarterfinals at the 2008 Olympic trials. The hamstring injury Gay sustained in that race left him so short of fitness at the Beijing Olympics that he failed to make the 100 final, won by Usain Bolt in a world-record 9.69. “I was upset, but then seeing what Bolt did, if I made the final in the shape I was in, I would have been embarrassed,” Gay said.

This was Gay’s first 100 of the season.

USA Track & Field let everyone know Gay intended to run just one round. He is among eight reigning world champions whose only obligation is to compete here in all or part of an event.

“It is important we didn’t follow some of the practices in the past and surprise fans at the last minute,” USA Track & Field Chief Executive Doug Logan said.

“It’s a glass half-full, half-empty situation,” Logan said of rules that can deprive the fans of seeing stars in their best events.

“If we had only two or three decent matchups and those were ruined by world champions who took a pass, I would be concerned. But I don’t have a problem with it.”

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Spike marks

Bryan Clay, the reigning Olympic decathlon champion, decided not to compete after injuring a hamstring Tuesday. . . . Olympic discus champ Stephanie Brown Trafton won her first U.S. title with a throw of 210 feet 9 3/4 inches. . . . Amy Yoder-Begley of Indiana won the women’s 10,000. Galen Rupp won the men’s 10,000 by six seconds in 27:52.53.

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phersh@tribune.com