Inside Track and Field

Dash of Hope  

Tim Montgomery finally put his demons behind him by outrunning Maurice Greene

By Merrell Noden

After years of trying, Tim Montgomery finally defeated Maurice Greene in a major 100 meters last Friday night, winning at Zurich in 9.98, far ahead of Greene, who never recovered from a terrible start and wound up fifth, in 10.10. "They ran good, I ran bad. It's as simple as that," said Greene. "I'm not injured, I've got no jet lag, and no excuses."

In Zurich neither Greene nor Chambers could catch Montgomery (above). Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Though most of the prerace hype focused on Greene and newly crowned European champion Dwain Chambers of Great Britain, the 27-year-old Montgomery was the sharpest in the field not once but twice. Zurich is one of the few Grand Prix meets that require sprinters to run two races, with the semifinals 80 minutes before the final. In winning his semi, Montgomery edged Chambers by .01 and clocked his best time of the year, 9.93. Greene, in contrast, finished third in his semi, in 10.08. That set the capacity crowd of 23,000 buzzing with speculation: Was Greene sandbagging?

Apparently not. On a night when the starting gun was consistently quick, Greene reacted poorly. Coby Miller of the U.S. got out of the blocks first, followed by Montgomery, who caught Miller 15 meters from the finish. Chambers was third in 10.05.

After the race Montgomery emphasized the importance of winning rather than running fast, but his time was impressive, as he had faced a 1.3-meter-per-second headwind. "I think it might have been worth 9.76 with the same wind behind us," he said.

Though at 5'10" and 155 pounds Montgomery is slight for a sprinter, his stature in the sport grew with his performance in Zurich. He considers his win a turning point. "I wanted to take the stigma off me of not being able to beat Maurice," he says. "I've always known that physically I could beat this guy. Maurice would beat me on technique and concentration. He tricks you into thinking about him, and whenever your mind leaves the race, you lose something. Running this fast, everything has to be automatic."

Issue date: August 26, 2002

For more Inside Track and Field see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, August 21. Click here to subscribe to SI.

 

Related information

Stories

Inside Baseball: Raising Arizona Scorecard; Analyze Disk SI's Rick Reilly: Demolition Experts This Week's Issue of Sports Illustrated SI Online: Current Issue and Archives

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video