|
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Surprise Miller overshadowed by Greene-Johnson hoopla
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -- Amid all the Maurice Greene vs. Michael Johnson hoopla, a funny thing happened in the U.S. Olympic 200-meter trials. Coby Miller made it. The event's bickering superstars didn't. The former Auburn All-American qualified for the Olympics, with a third-place finish in the 200 last month. "It kind of upset me a little bit to see everyone put so much emphasis on Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene," Miller said. "It just goes to show you can't get caught up in the you-and-I thing, you've got to compete against all the competitors." Johnson and Greene both pulled up lame in the finals, an anticlimactic conclusion to weeks of pre-race trash-talking and hype. Miller made the team with a personal best time of 19.96 seconds, behind John Capel and Floyd Heard. "I came off the turn first and I didn't know they had gone down," Miller said of Johnson and Greene. "It seemed like I just had so much energy coming off that turn. And I looked around, and I was right there in the mix." He failed to make the 100-meter finals, finishing fifth in his semifinal heat at 10.26 seconds. Miller had posted what was then the second-fastest time in the world, 9.98, this year during the semifinals of the NCAA Championships. "We knew he had one more chance [in the 200]," Auburn track coach Ron Spry said. "He knew he had to run the race of his life. And he did that. It's just an exclamation point to the great year that Coby Miller had." He concluded his Auburn career this spring with a second-place finish in the 200 in the NCAA Outdoor Championships, behind Capel. The native of tiny Louisville, Miss., was the 1999 NCAA indoor champion in the event. Miller took a circuitous route in his rise to stardom, though. He accepted a football scholarship to East Central Community College in Decatur, Miss., because his grades weren't good enough to get into any major schools. The school didn't have a track team, so he left East Central after one year for Meridian Community College. There, he won the indoor National Junior College Championship in the 55 meters, and took 19 credit hours a semester so he could move on to a bigger school. Miller received his degree from Auburn in criminal justice Aug. 14. "He's a guy that does everything right - in the classroom, on the track, role model, team player," said Spry, who will work with Miller in Sydney. "It couldn't happen to a nicer guy." Miller said the absence of Johnson gives a new twist to the race for the gold medal. "I think the 200 meters is wide open," he said. "You have to give Michael Johnson his props and everything, but he's not there. Hey, I'm in the mix for a gold medal and that's what I'm going for."
| ||||||||||||||||||||
