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Perec goes, Freeman arrives
Posted: Wednesday May 17, 2000 12:49 PM
In December, sprint coach John Smith's Los Angeles-based HSInternational enclave lost the fastest women's 400-meter runner in the post-Eastern-bloc era when Marie-José Perec of France left Smith to train in Germany. In May, Smith and Co. snared the second-fastest of that same era when Australian Cathy Freeman began training under the eucalyptus trees at UCLA. At the '96 Olympics in Atlanta, Perec became the first woman in history to double in the 200 and 400 meters. Her blistering time of 48.25 seconds in the 400-meter final was the sixth-fastest time in history -- and the fastest time not run by an Eastern-bloc athlete in the drug-addled early and mid-'80's. The next fastest non-Eastern-bloc runner is Freeman, who ran 48.63 to finish second behind Perec in Atlanta, and who last year won the 400 at the World Championships. Freeman's purpose in Los Angeles is twofold: to escape the Southern Hemisphere winter and ceaseless attention in her home country (as Australia's best track-and-field gold-medal hope and one of only a few Aboriginal athletes expected to compete in Sydney); and to get some sprint tutoring from Smith, who is working as a "consultant" (his word) to Freeman's Aussie coach, Peter Fortune. Freeman will stay in Los Angeles until mid-summer, when she moves her base to Europe. Perec, meanwhile, has hopes of making a last-ditch run at Sydney after three years of mediocre training. Smith, for one, doubts that she'll get there. "As gifted as she is, with the shape she was in when she left [Los Angeles], I'd be surprised if she runs," Smith said. Wade on the mendAlso on the HSI front, 25-year-old Larry Wade, the No. 3-ranked 110-meter hurdler in the world last year (his first on the international stage), is recovering from major surgery to drain fluid from near his heart after an Easter Sunday car accident. He still hopes to recover sufficiently to compete in the Olympic Trials. Wade was injured in an accident the day after the April 16 Mt. SAC Relays. He was bothered for three weeks by persistent headaches that slowed his training, then during the second week of May he came down with a severe fever. Doctors discovered that it was the result of an infection from fluid that had collected around his heart muscle, probably the result of the accident. On May 10 an incision was made in Wade's chest to drain the fluid, and he spent three days in a critical-care unit. Doctors estimated that Wade would need at least four weeks of recovery before resuming normal training. Smith, who also coaches Wade, figures that's enough to get him to Sacramento for the Trials (July 14-23). If he makes the U.S. team, it will be one of the feel-good stories of the Trials. Women's 100 showdownLooking for a Marion Jones-Inger Miller matchup? It will probably happen at the June 24 Prefontaine Classic, where meet promoter Tom Jordan expects Jones and Miller to compete in the 100 meters. Representatives for both runners are making a conscious effort to keep them apart until the Trials (where they will meet in both the 100 and 200), but the Pre Classic has no 200 meters and, as Miller said, "I go there and run where they tell me." In this case, they means Nike, which co-sponsors the meet and sends most of the elite athletes the shoe company maintains under contract. However, don't look for Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene to hook up at Pre, or anywhere else, before the Trials. A hurdle for JonesSpeaking of Jones, it will be mighty interesting to see how Team Marion handles her abysmal fourth-place finish in the long jump May 13 at the Osaka Grand Prix meet. It's not cause for panic, but it is the first bump in the road in Jones's drive for five gold medals in Sydney. Up until the Osaka meet, Jones's support team, with considerable help from Nike and certainly the blessing of NBC, had been ceaselessly attempting to position Marion as the five-gold-medal-winning queen of the Sydney Games. Few questioned whether five golds is a practical goal. Osaka took care of that, raising an ugly yet familiar question: Is Jones capable of winning the long jump? She hasn't jumped far enough in two years and, despite promises that her form was altered and improved, she bombed at Osaka. She remains one of the best long jumpers in the world on talent alone and can win Sydney if she pieces together one great jump. But the more immediate issue concerns what now becomes Team Marion's public posture. Jones has always been much better at polite arrogance while winning than mature grace while struggling. Let's see if that changes. Tim Layden is a Sports Illustrated senior writer who covers track and field for the magazine.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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