Advertisement
Olympics Blog

Gay nearly dashes out of the trials

By Helene Elliott
Sports ColumnistFollow
Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Tyson Gay, favored to win the 100 here and expected to be a medal contender in Beijing, almost eased his way out of contention.

Running in the final preliminary heat, Gay powered out of the blocks and was comfortably ahead -- until he started easing up way too early, at about the 70-meter mark. When he realized his mistake he powered up again and barely got fourth in the heat and a place in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Advertisement

‘I misjudged the white line,’ he said over his shoulder as he walked past reporters hoping to interview him, never easing up there.

Walter Dix of Florida State, who has been hampered by a hamstring problem most of this season, had the fastest preliminary time, 9.96 seconds. The wind was 1.7 meters per second, so the time was wind-legal.

--Helene Elliott

Olympics Blog
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

Advertisement