By BRIAN LEWIS
Last updated: 5:01 am
July 6, 2008
Posted: 3:44 am
July 6, 2008
EUGENE, Ore - Tyson Gay won three gold medals at last year's World Championships and was bidding for three more in Beijing; but he saw that dream dashed in one painful instant, as he crumpled to the ground in the 200-meter quarterfinals at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials.
Just 14 strides into the race, Gay tumbled to the ground, his white bib number flying through the air. He held the back of his left leg while being treated, eventually getting carried off the track and leaving Hayward Field in a golf cart. Gay underwent ice and compression treatment at his hotel from physiotherapist Benny Vaughn, who called it a severe left hamstring cramp.
"I was a little sore in warmups, but I didn't feel it in the blocks. It was on the curve when I first felt it. I felt it (Friday) on the curve, too. I'll be OK,'' Gay told a handful of reporters outside the Bowerman Building. When asked if he'd be able to run the 100 in Beijing - which he'd qualified for last Sunday with a wind-aided 9.68 - he responded "I hope so.''
Agent Mark Wetmore said no structural damage was found pending an MRI, but it was still the cramp heard around the world of track and field.
"Before I went out on the track I felt a little tightness in my hamstring, so I had kind of a bad feeling. When I came off the curve the first two steps were fine, and then I felt it, sort of a pull, about 40 meters in. Once I was on the ground it didn't hurt as much as when it happened,'' Gay added in a release. "It's just one of those things. I'll just get it worked on for a few days.''
A cramp would take just days to heal, but a pull would take weeks. It was reminiscent of the 2000 trials when Michael Johnson and Maurice Greene pulled in the 200 final. Injuries underscore the meet's capricious nature, like then-decathlon world record-holder Dan O'Brien not making the 1992 team.
"If it's a cramp, he's going to be fine. I wouldn't say much more than that if I were him either,'' laughed O'Brien, suggesting Gay could be protecting his six-figure appearance fees on the European circuit. "(If it's a cramp) he'll be training in a week. If he can't sit on the toilet (today) he's got problems.''
As would the U.S. sprint corps, which may have lost its best challenger for Jamaican stars Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell.
"I was like, Oh my God, what are we going to do with these Jamaicans?'' said John Capel, a former world 200 champ who was eliminated.
