Bad-Memory Lane

If only Maurice Greene hadn’t let up.

If only he had run through his Olympic 100-meter semifinal heat, instead of easing up and placing third. If he’d won the heat, he would have had a middle lane in the final and wouldn’t have been, as he said, “running blind” in Lane 7.

And if he hadn’t been so far outside, Greene says, he might have won a second successive 100-meter gold medal and proved that the tattoo emblazoned on his arm, the one that says “Greatest of All Time,” is more than a decoration.

“He was in the stands with us, in Lane 7,” said his coach, John Smith. “At that level of competition there’s a lot of parity, so you have to be next to each other to really feel what’s going on.”

Greene finished in 9.87 seconds, behind ascendant star Justin Gatlin, who ran 9.85 in Lane 3, and Portugal’s Francis Obikwelu, 9.86 in Lane 5, in the swiftest Olympic 100-meter final ever run. No shame there. He also won a silver medal in the 400-meter relay.

But his tactical error in the semifinal still haunts him, eclipsing the memory of his remarkable comeback last season from a series of injuries triggered by a 2002 motorcycle accident.

“When the indoor season started, I really wasn’t into it mentally,” said Greene, who has trained in Los Angeles with Smith since 1996. “I just wasn’t in competitive mode.... I had to get totally away and let my mind recover from the Olympic Games. I wasn’t in good competition shape.”

Although the three-time world champion hasn’t found his peace, he appears to be finding his stride.

Greene, who will turn 31 in July, began the outdoor season by running relay legs at the Texas, Kansas, and Mt. San Antonio College relays. Bowing to sentiment, he entered the 100 in his native Kansas, even though he hadn’t prepared for it, and his third-place time was an unspectacular 10.14. However, his winning time of 10.03 last Saturday at Forte-de-France, Martinique, is the fastest in the world this season and signaled that his irrepressible spirit and confidence are returning.

“Me and John, we figure I’m on schedule,” he said during a conference call with reporters. “My training has been going great. I put a lot of work in after indoor season, three times as much as I normally do.”

Besides driving him to a peak fitness level, Smith has helped Greene shift his focus from the gold medal he lost to the goals he can yet achieve.

At Smith’s urging, Greene adopted a mission of running 60 sub-10-second 100-meter races, a pursuit he will resume May 22 at the Adidas Track Classic at the Home Depot Center in Carson. By Greene’s count he’s four short, although he includes four wind-aided times.

Greene twice ran under 10 seconds when the meet was called the Home Depot Invitational. He won the inaugural race in 9.94 seconds in 2003 and repeated in a wind-aided 9.86 last year, a performance he embellished by arranging for hurdler Larry Wade to sprint onto the track afterward and douse his shoes with a fire extinguisher.

“My feet was burning,” Greene explained after the crowd-pleasing stunt.

No sprinter has come close to Greene’s number of sub-10-second finishes, not even Carl Lewis, who won the 100 at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and successfully defended his title in 1988 at Seoul. Lewis had 15 sub-10 times; Ato Boldon recorded 28 and Frankie Fredericks had 27.

“Sixty is like a milestone mark,” said Greene, who held the world record of 9.79 from 1999 until 2002, when Tim Montgomery cut it to 9.78. “Especially in baseball, 60 home runs is a big figure. For someone to score 60 points in a basketball game, that’s big.

“I will achieve that this year.”

Smith said he sensed Greene had been “pulled in different directions” by his responsibilities, including a 5-year-old daughter, but he scoffed at the suggestion Greene lacked motivation.

“Yeah, till he gets to the track and gets his sweats off,” Smith said. “He’s such a competitor, I have to protect him from himself in some cases. He has the ability to run above his fitness level, which means if he’s not fit to run, he can still run fast. He wants to run because he wants to be such a positive influence on track and field.”

Its image tarnished by the BALCO scandal and other doping violations, track needs all the polishing it can get. Greene says the sport is hurt “every time anybody brings up drugs,” and he has a solution for keeping the topic from arising.

“If you go out there and put up great performances and great competitions, that will do enough,” he said.

The 100 field on May 22 offers the elements for a superb race. Entrants include Gatlin, Coby Miller, John Capel, who beat Greene at the Kansas Relays in 10.10, and Leonard Scott, Greene’s HSI track club teammate. Greene said he enjoyed the atmosphere in Carson and relished the chance to entertain.

“I feel at home,” he said. “A lot of people in the city of Los Angeles come out to see me compete, and I have to put on a great show for them.... I will be ready, most definitely.”

Although Greene said he was taking things year by year, Smith has another challenge in mind for him.

“Next year, I’m going to try to motivate him by telling him he has to run 70 sub-10s,” Smith said. “That would put him in a category all by himself. I’ll tell him, ‘People think Carl Lewis was the greatest of all time. Carl Lewis was the greatest Olympic sprinter of all time, but you’re the greatest sprinter of all time.’ ”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

TRACK MEET

* What: Adidas Track Classic.

* When, Where: May 22, Home Depot Center in Carson.

FAST COMPANY

Maurice Greene has three of the fastest times in the 100.

Tim Montgomery (2002)...9.78

Greene (1999)...9.79

Greene (1999)...9.80

Bruny Surin (1999)...9.84

Donovan Bailey (1996)...9.84

Justin Gatlin (2004)...9.85

Leroy Burrell (1994)...9.85

Francis Obikwelu (2004)...9.86

Greene (1997, 2000)...9.86

Frank Fredericks (1999)...9.86

Ato Boldon (1999)...9.86

Carl Lewis (1991)...9.86