U.S. Squanders Golden Chance

Victory was nearly theirs. All Suziann Reid had to do on Sunday was hold on to the huge lead her U.S. teammates had built on the first three legs of the 1,600-meter relay, and hold on to the baton passed to her by Michelle Collins.

It didn’t matter that Reid had to run the anchor leg against Jamaica’s Lorraine Fenton, who won a silver medal in the 400 meters at the Sydney Olympics last year under her maiden name, Lorraine Graham. Reid is a two-time U.S indoor champion and was twice the NCAA indoor 400 champion at Texas. She was confident Sunday. So were teammates Jearl Miles-Clark, Monique Hennagan and Collins.

“I could smell gold,” Collins said, touching the tip of her index finger to her nose.

But when the baton squirted away from Reid and fell to the infield after she tried to transfer it from her left hand to her right, the U.S. smelled defeat. A sure triumph at the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships became a fourth-place finish that allowed Jamaica to win, Germany to finish second and Russia to place third.

When the U.S. men ended the meet by winning the 400-meter relay, the U.S. and Russia were tied in the medal standings at 19 each.

The U.S. is atop the placing table--in which first through eighth places are awarded points, from eight descending to one--with 199 points to 182 for Russia. And the nine gold medals won by U.S. athletes or relay teams was the most in the competition, in which a record 64 countries had athletes in a final.

The gold that got away in the 1,600, however, is the one the U.S. women will remember.

“She tried to switch hands and her body was moving faster than everything else,” Collins said of Reid, who declined to talk to reporters and quickly left Commonwealth Stadium. “It was unfortunate. She was devastated, but we’re still supporting her. These things happen.

“I really don’t think she was intimidated or worried [about Fenton]. It was just one of those things. She bobbled it. She just probably should have kept it until she was out of traffic.

“We really wanted to win gold for the U.S.”

The U.S. surpassed its medal count at the last two world championships, but fell short of the 20 it won at Sydney. That’s no surprise because this team was younger, and stars such as Maurice Greene and Marion Jones competed in fewer events.

“There were some incredible performances by some individuals and some of the teams,” said Craig Masback, chief executive officer of USA Track and Field. “I guess we can continue to call ourselves the world’s No. 1 track and field team.”

In some areas, certainly. The U.S. men won gold in the 1,600 and 400 relays Sunday, both by big margins.

Leonard Byrd, Antonio Pettigrew, Derrick Brew and Angelo Taylor rallied to win the 1,600 in 2 minutes 57.54 seconds, the world’s fastest time this year. The Bahamas was second in 2:58.19 and Jamaica third in 2:58.39.

“This is my last world championship,” said Pettigrew, who has six medals. “We’ve got a lot of good young guys and they will keep it going for the United States.”

And although the 400 relay team had problems getting to the final, all went smoothly on Sunday. After being disqualified and reinstated on Saturday and almost botching the baton exchange from Dennis Mitchell to Tim Montgomery in the semifinal on Sunday, Mickey Grimes, Bernard Williams, Mitchell and Montgomery won gold in a season-best 37.96 seconds. It was the sixth U.S. victory in the 400 in eight world meets, with the only exceptions in 1995 and 1997, when the U.S. dropped the baton in preliminary heats and was disqualified.

There was no whooping and hollering afterward, no preening or using the U.S. flag as a towel, as Williams, Jon Drummond, Greene and Brian Lewis did in Sydney to widespread condemnation.

“Of course, we were going to have to do something less outlandish,” said Mitchell, who plans to retire after adding his sixth world championship medal to his three Olympic medals. “We wanted to show we’re more mature and we’re good ambassadors for our country.”

Distance races were more troublesome for U.S. athletes, as none won a medal in an individual race longer than 200 meters. “There were some good signs,” Masback said, “but we’re just not getting it done in the 800, 1,500, 5K, 10K and marathon.”

In Sunday’s distance races, the best U.S. finish in the women’s marathon was Jill Gaitenby, who was 32nd in 2:39:20. Lidia Simon of Romania won with a strong finishing kick as she entered the stadium, her first world marathon title after a third-place finish in 1999 and a silver-medal finish at Sydney. Her time was 2:26:01.

The men’s 1,500 was won for the third consecutive time by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco, in 3:30.68. He was the favorite at Sydney but was passed on the final stretch by Kenya’s Noah Ngeny, who did not compete here. This time El Guerrouj--who plans to switch to the 5,000--would not be denied, and Kenya’s Bernard Lagat settled for second.

“I wanted it to be the best race of my life because it was my last 1,500,” El Guerrouj said.

The only U.S. finalist, Paul McMullen, was 10th in 3:39.35. The U.S. had no finalists in the women’s 800, won by Olympic champion Maria Mutola of Mozambique in 1:57.17. Amy Acuff of the U.S. was 10th in the high jump, won by South Africa’s Hestrie Cloete.

Masback met with officials of the International Assn. of Athletics Federations over the weekend to discuss USATF’s antidoping procedures. An independent commission faulted USATF’s handling of 17 cases and USATF satisfied the IAAF’s questions on 14 of those cases. USATF agreed to continue to provide the IAAF with information on the other cases.

Host country Canada won no medals, the second time that has happened. Sweden was shut out in 1995.

*

Related Story

Leftovers: As usual, track and field served on tape delay to U.S. TV viewers, Mike Penner writes. D8