Olympic Track and Field Trials Roundup : Johnson Runs Windy 9.90; Coe Fails to Qualify

World record-holder Ben Johnson won the 100-meter dash final in the Canadian Olympic track and field trials Saturday at Ottawa, setting up a showdown at Seoul with arch-rival Carl Lewis.

Johnson, who set the world record of 9.83 seconds last year in the World Championships at Rome, was timed in a wind-aided 9.90. The breeze of 3.7 meters a second was well over the limit of 2.0.

Johnson had been sidelined for nearly three months with a leg muscle injury before winning his heat Friday night in a slow 10.38. He was timed in 10.20 in Saturday’s semifinal and won the final an hour later.

Lewis ran a wind-aided time of 9.78 in the U.S. Olympic trials last month at Indianapolis.

Angella Issajenko won the women’s 100 meters in 11.01, her best time of the year.

Sebastian Coe’s chances of defending his Olympic 1,500-meter title hung on the whim of selectors after he labored to fourth place in the heats and failed to qualify for the final in the British Olympic trials at Birmingham, England.

The two-time Olympic champion rallied from sixth place in the finishing straight, but his finishing speed was not there as he wound up behind three of his countrymen and missed out on a chance to run in today’s final at Alexander Stadium.

“At 1,100 meters there was nothing there,” said Coe, 31. “It has been going well at altitude training and since I have been back. But there was nothing there today.”

The team selectors have decided on a policy of choosing the first two in each trials event plus a discretionary third.

While Coe struggled, heat victories were scored by Steve Ovett and Steve Cram, the other two members of Britain’s famed middle-distance trio.

Ovett, the 1980 Olympic 800-meter gold medalist, won his 1,500-meter heat; Cram was timed in 1:44.16 while taking his 800-meter heat.

Ovett waved to the crowd of 14,000 as he romped into the final with a time of 3:43.98 in the slowest of the four heats.

The fastest qualifier was Steve Crabb in 3:41.93. Coe managed 3:45.01 in the second-slowest heat, which was won by Adrian Passey in 3:43.64.

Among other leading qualifiers was Peter Elliott, who won his heat in 3:42.83.

Cram, 27, smashed a 15-year-old championship record and served notice that he will make a two-pronged assault on the Olympic 800- and 1,500-meter medals in Seoul.

Olympic women’s javelin champion Tessa Sanderson failed to make the start list of her event because of an injury, but she was relieved to find herself almost certain to make the team for Seoul because only one of the field managed an Olympic qualifying throw.

That means that Sanderson and world champion Fatima Whitbread, who also missed the trials because of an injury, both are likely to be selected.

In the women’s 3,000 meters, Yvonne Murray, who has run the fastest in the world this year, won the event in 8:47.34. She has run 8:37.22.

Wendy Sly, a silver medalist at Los Angeles four years ago, finished third in 8:52.37 and will have to wait until Monday to see if she has made the team.