It’s Still Johnson’s World

What do you call the first man to win both the 200- and 400-meter sprints in the same Olympics, the first man to complete 200 meters in an outrageously fast 19.32 seconds, the first man to win three consecutive world championships at 400 meters?

Oh, Michael Johnson can tell you.

Coward, he has heard.

“Chicken,” to quote Donovan Bailey verbatim.

And American teammate Tyree Washington openly questioned Johnson’s heart just the other day.

Who ever said it was good to be the king?

Since June 1 in Toronto, when Johnson was officially found fallible as he pulled up limping halfway into his 150-meter “world’s fastest human” circus act with Bailey (sans Barnum), Johnson has endured slings and arrows--and, worse, defeat--as part of a decidedly lousy first anniversary of his historic conquest of Atlanta.

Typically stoic through it all, Johnson finally lashed back Tuesday at the World Championships, winning his third successive 400-meter title in 44.12 seconds and then doing something Bailey has yet to do in Athens:

Stand on the top level of the medals podium.

Foot-in-mouth disease can be especially serious in track and field, what with those sharp metal spikes. Bailey, who accused Johnson of quitting in their $1-million match race in Toronto, lost his world’s fastest title over the weekend to a 23-year-old kid named Maurice Greene. Washington, who wondered if Johnson had the heart to win here, was blown away down the stretch Tuesday by Johnson, prompting him to hug the winner and humbly apologize immediately after the race.

Johnson returned the embrace, publicly thanking the 20-year-old Washington for “giving me that kind of incentive. I mean, that’s what I feed off of.”

Johnson’s winning time was the slowest of his four major 400-meter championships, but no less rewarding, considering the condition of the left thigh muscle he injured in Toronto, which cramped on him again at the 300-meter mark Tuesday.

Twinge or no, Johnson came out of the final turn in third place, trailing both Britain’s Iwan Thomas on his left and U.S. teammate Antonio Pettigrew to his right, and ran both down on the straightaway. Burned them up, in fact. Thomas wound up sixth, in 44.52 seconds, and Pettigrew, the 1991 world champion, slunk home in seventh, running what he called a terrible 44.57.

Davis Kamoga of Uganda was second in 44.37, with Washington taking the bronze medal in 44.39.

Washington is a rookie on the international circuit, but he caused a stir Sunday when he watched Johnson finish fourth in his quarterfinal heat and observed, “He’s been through a lot of trials and tribulations. He’ll just have to deal with it. If he’s strong enough he’ll come back, if he has a heart.”

Washington reconsidered those words after he finished the 400-meter final in Johnson’s slipstream.

“He does have heart,” Washington said. “He probably regrouped and thought things over. He probably wanted to prove something today, which he did.”

Johnson played the role of the gracious winner in his interview session, dismissing Washington’s remark as a rookie mistake.

“Tyree is young,” Johnson said. “He’s a freshman. That was a freshman mistake. You don’t question what’s in the heart of any man, particularly one who’s won 80-some-odd races. . . .

Bailey, who derided Johnson as “a chicken” in Toronto and has yet to apologize to Johnson, is a different matter.

Asked if he felt vindication because of the gold-medal standings here--Johnson 1, Bailey 0--Johnson said, “No, I wasn’t looking for any vindication. I put that situation behind me when I left Toronto.

“I can’t do anything about what happened [to Bailey] in the 100 meters because I don’t run the 100 meters. I came here to win my race, not to try to vindicate anything.”

One thing about that race against Bailey continues to stick in his craw, though.

“I can’t get that million dollars back,” he said.

The best he can do is set about restoring his reputation, which was dinged in Toronto and then badly dented in Paris in late June when Johnson finished fifth in the 400 meters--his first defeat in 59 races.

“It was disappointing, yeah, to get injured in a race I thought I could win,” Johnson said, referring to the “world’s fastest” runoff, “and it was disappointing the way that I was portrayed by some of the media after that. But, hey, that’s part of what happens when you get to this status.”

World Track Notes

Greco-Roman wrestling made an unscheduled appearance at the World Championships with the women’s 1,500-meter final field grabbing, tugging, pushing and pulling to an unsightly finish.

Regina Jacobs of the United States was ahead as the pack approached the last turn when Sonia O’Sullivan of Ireland reached out and grabbed the left strap of Jacobs’ tank top, like a desperate defensive back trying to drag down Jerry Rice in the open field.

Suddenly, Jacobs was third and had to rally to finish second behind Carla Sacramento of Portugal, who finished in 4 minutes 4.24 seconds. Jacobs then chased O’Sullivan into the tunnel, where she pushed the Irish runner and screamed, “You cost me the race, you . . . !”

“If that hadn’t happened, I think I definitely would have won,” Jacobs told reporters once tempers had cooled. “I was in the lead and the next thing I know, I’m two meters back. She gave me a pretty good tug. A shove and a pull. I felt like a bowling pin.”

O’Sullivan told Jacobs that the grab was unintentional, that she was simply trying to keep her balance after stumbling. Jacobs wasn’t buying it.

“That was a desperate act,” Jacobs said. ‘I felt it was very intentional.” Jacobs finally managed a smile. “But I had the last word--I’m on the medals stand and she’s not. Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah-nyah.”

Cuba’s Ivan Pedroso won his second consecutive long jump championship with a leap of 27 feet 7 1/2 inches on his first attempt. Runner-up Erick Walder of the U.S. jumped 27-6, and Kirill Sosunov of Russia was third at 26-10.

Marius Corbett of South Africa and Sally Barsosio of Kenya were other winners. Corbett won the men’s javelin throw at 290 feet, and Barsosio, 19, set a world junior record in the women’s 10,000-meter run with her winning time of 31:32.92.