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No go Johnson says no more 200s after trials injury
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) -- World record holder Michael Johnson, who pulled up lame Sunday in his bid to qualify for the Olympic 200 meters, said Monday he would run no more 200-meter races. "There's nothing for me to gain from it, so no more 200s for me," the injured Johnson said in an e-mail to subscribers to the web site NBCOlympics.com. "There's no reason for me to run 200s." His coach, Clyde Hart, confirmed Johnson's decision. "That's right," Hart told Reuters. Hart, Johnson's longtime coach, said the world 200-and 400-meter record holder had had enough of the hype surrounding the 200-meter showdown with world champion Maurice Greene at the just-ended U.S. Olympic trials. Neither runner finished the shocking 200-meters final. Johnson fell to the track in the curve with severe cramps in his left hamstring and Greene hobbled to a stop later with what his trainer said was a slight tear in his left hamstring. Hart said Johnson was still sore Monday, but it would be Tuesday or Wednesday before the extent of the injury was known. Johnson has 200-meter races scheduled for Brussels Aug. 25 and Rieti Sept. 3, "but those races will have to be changed to 400s or we can't run them," Hart said. The injuries will keep the sprinters off the U.S. 200-meter team for Sydney. Both expect to compete in the Games, though, with Johnson running the 400 and 4x400-meter relay and Greene the 100 and 4x100-meter relay. "So Sydney will be a lot more fun now because the guys in the 400 don't play these games these guys in the 200 do," Johnson said in his Internet statement. "We all have mutual respect for each other, and that's a lot more fun to me." Even before Sunday's race Johnson said he was thinking about never running another 200 meters. "My decision, had I won or made the team -- was probably going to be not to run the 200 at the Olympics anyway," he said. "I was just totally sick of it," Johnson said. "It was something that was a benefit for everyone but me. Everyone wanted it but me. I didn't want this, but it was something that I felt like, in my position, I have to give people the chance to try to beat me." His rivalry with Greene, Johnson said, "became not about what guys have done and what they can do; it became about who can talk the most trash and who can down the other person best. That's just silly, so I didn't want to have anything to do with it."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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