EUGENE, Ore. (AP) ― Tyson Gay accelerated through the first curve. Then, he started flying.
Not in the figurative sense, but in an all-too-real way—a shocking sprawl to the ground that cost him an Olympic spot in the 200 meters and made him look like less than a sure thing, health-wise at least, with the Beijing Games five weeks away.
Gay suffered what his manager called a severe cramp in his left hamstring at U.S. Olympic track and field trials Saturday and had to be carted off the track.
He has already qualified for the Olympics in the 100 meters, but his chances at doubling are gone. Now, the nervous wait begins to see if it was, indeed, just a cramp, and how that affects his training over the next month.
“There is no apparent damage otherwise, except for some road rash from the fall,“ said Gay’s manager, Mark Wetmore. “He said he felt a little tightness before the race.“
Wetmore said Gay was getting an MRI as a precaution. Results were not immediately available.
“When he wakes up tomorrow, he’ll know,“ said former decathlete Dan O’Brien, who famously missed the Olympics 16 years ago. “He’ll be able to stretch it out, he’ll be able to move it. If he can’t sit on the toilet tomorrow, he’s got problems.“
Had this been gymnastics, or a number of other sports, an injury at trials wouldn’t have ended Gay’s chance to make the Olympics in that specific event. But USA Track and Field plays it straight—top three finishers at trials make the Olympics, no exceptions.
Which means that even if he’s healthy, this is a stunning setback for the 25-year-old sprinter, the defending world champ in both speed events who last week set the American record in the 100 at 9.77 seconds. In the final, he ran it in 9.68, the fastest time ever recorded, but not a world record because the tailwind was too strong.
“He’s a champion,“ said Rodney Martin, who won the heat after Gay fell. “He’ll recover. He’ll recover.“
Damein White, running in the lane next to Gay, said he saw Gay pull up and saw something fly his way. It was the white sticker with Gay’s number on it.
“I tried to keep going off the curve,“ White said. “It kind of threw me off. He just pulled something. He’ll be right back. Next year, we’ve got worlds. You’ll see him there.“
More urgently, however, are the Olympics. Qualifying for the 100-meter dash starts Aug. 15, and Gay was one of the favorites along with world-record holder Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, both of Jamaica.
Members of the U.S. track team are expected to leave for the games about 10 to 14 days before their event starts. Gay also was committed for a meet in London on July 25 and was considering running in a couple more events in Europe before the Olympics.
The injury will open up another spot in the 200, where Gay, Wallace Spearmon, Xavier Carter, Shawn Crawford and Walter Dix were considered among the top runners going for only three spots.
“It doesn’t really change things on my part,“ Carter said. “Tyson’s a great runner. He’s No. 1. Everybody was shooting for him. I’m not going to change anything because he got hurt. I’ve got to continue doing what I was doing as if he wasn’t hurt.“
Gay wasn’t the only one to see his day come to an untimely end.
Allen Johnson, the 37-year-old hurdler trying to make his fourth Olympics, pulled up lame after the fourth hurdle in the 110-meter qualifier and fell to the ground in pain. He won the 1996 Games, but now his Olympic career is over, though he said he might come back for one more year.
“It’s disappointing,“ Johnson said. “This is what sports is about. I’ve had some great days, had some bad days.“
For Gay, this goes down as a bad day.
Still, if his injury truly was only a cramp, he could be back on the track soon.
If it’s more serious than that, it would be a blow for track, at least on the American scene.
He was considered one of the fresh, young faces of a sport that has endured unrelenting doping problems over the past several years. Many were hoping to turn the page this season, and they were hoping Gay, a bit shy, but successful, would be a big part of that.
O’Brien said he thought the next three days would be key.
“If you can get some treatment and get rubbed out from a cramp, it’s like it never happened,“ he said. “If there’s an injury in there, he’s got to nurse it back. He can’t do it too soon. Otherwise, he’s going reinjure it or make it worse.“
Tyson Gay Tumbles At Olympic Trials, Out Of 200 |
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