Crawford Outruns Greene

Shawn Crawford was still catching his breath, still savoring his 100-meter dash victory at the Prefontaine Classic in a scorching 9.88 seconds, when Maurice Greene extended a hand in congratulations.

“Nice run,” Greene said. He then paused for dramatic effect, looked over his shoulder and added, “Three weeks.”

Message sent. Challenge accepted.

Three weeks’ time is when they’ll meet again, at the U.S. Olympic trials in Sacramento. Saturday’s race in front of an overflow crowd of 12,376 at Hayward Field was for pride and practice, and Crawford advanced on both fronts with a world-leading time that edged Sydney gold medalist Greene (9.93) and John Capel (9.95). World record holder Tim Montgomery was sixth, in 10.17 seconds.

“When you win a race like this here it makes people say, ‘This guy can win 100 meters,’ ” said Crawford, who’s better-known in the 200 but powered through at the finish Saturday. “I was kind of surprised by the times.... I was thinking we’d have some 9.9s, and 9.88 is close. It lets me know I’m consistent.”

It was an electrifying event on an exhilaratingly sunny day, a moment when the doping scandal that clouds the futures of a number of elite runners became secondary to talk of fast times and superb performances.

“I was saying, ‘We’ve got to give them a little show,’ ” Greene said, “and we gave them a big one.”

So did Alan Webb, whose time of 3 minutes 50.85 seconds in the mile was the swiftest in the world this year and the fastest by an American on U.S. soil, and Canada’s Perdita Felicien, who ran a world-best time of 12.46 seconds in winning the women’s 100-meter hurdles. The other world-leading mark was set in the hammer throw, when Japan’s Koji Murofushi won with a throw of 271 feet 2 inches.

Webb, the high-school phenom who foundered the last two years, recorded his fifth consecutive personal-best time this season. The previous American record for the mile in a domestic meet was set in 1967 by Jim Ryun, when he ran a 3:51.1 at Bakersfield.

Webb and Ryun became historically linked again, as they were when Webb broke Ryun’s high-school mile record here three years ago.

“That last lap hurt a bit, but I went after it,” said Webb, whose splits were 54.9 seconds for the quarter-mile, 1:51.5 at the half-mile and 3:34.42 at the 1,500-meter mark. “It’s a big burden lifted off me.... It’s not an ending, it’s a happy beginning. I feel I have a lot more to accomplish, and I feel I can do even better.”

Pole vaulter Stacy Dragila had three creditable tries at a world-record height of 16 feet but happily accepted a victory at 15-5. “I would have liked to make the bar at 16 feet,” she said, “but maybe I’ll do that at the trials.... I know it’s there. It’s just a matter of timing.”

Also of note, Sydney 800-meter gold medalist Maria Mutola of Mozambique won the 800 in 1:57.78; Larry Wade outleaned Allen Johnson to win the 110-meter hurdles, though both were timed at 13.14 seconds, and USC alumnus Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic won the 400-meter hurdles in a meet-record 48.12 seconds.