Gay hungry for Olympic double
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Joy at winning at the world 100 and 200 metres
double has sparked the desire within Tyson Gay to duplicate his performance at next year's Beijing Olympics.
"I want it all," Gay said in a phone interview from his Kentucky homeplace.
"I want to go to the (US Olympic) trials healthy and come out victorious in the
100 and 200, and do the same in the Olympics. |
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"A lot of people focus more on the 100 as the
primary event in track and field, but I still think I have some work to do in the 200."
Gay, 25, who completed the double in Osaka this year is in the hunt along with
Chinese high hurdler Liu Xiang and Ethiopian distance runner Haile Gebrselassie for the International Association
of Athletics Federations world athlete of the year title this weekend in Monaco.
Already hard at work on his 2008 preparations, Gay said he would sacrifice part
of his Christmas holiday to ensure he was ready for his first Olympics. "I know I can't sit back and be content,"
he said.
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"I have to want more.
"I got a text message from a friend that said 'You may have
only one chance at the Olympics, give it your all,' and that makes so much sense."
Victorious in 2007 even though his coach, Lance Brauman, was
in prison at the time for embezzlement and mail fraud, Gay said he planned no coaching changes. He will
continue to work with Brauman |
and use former US Olympian Jon Drummond as a technical advisor just as he did this
year.
He will train during the US winter in Orlando, Florida, where
Brauman has relocated, and later spend time in Dallas working with Drummond.
Gay said he would miss the indoor season and run only in the United
States and Jamaica prior to the Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, next June.
A similar early schedule in 2007 led to a stunning, but
wind-assisted clocking of 9.76 seconds in New York in June and the second-fastest 200 metres of all time, 19.62 seconds, at the
US championships despite a negative wind.
His winning 100 metres time of 9.84 seconds at the U.S. meeting was
also recorded into a head wind..
"The only thing that is stopping Tyson Gay from running into the
9.7s are the wind conditions," he said.
"When I have the right wind reading, I will truly run something
amazing. Gay said he wanted to break Jamaican Asafa Powell's 100 metres world record of 9.74 seconds.
"I know I am capable. If I don't break the record it will be because
of the wind conditions," he said. His three world championship gold medals, which include the 4x100 metres relay, rest
beside his bed in his Arkansas home.
"I don't open them up every day and look at them," he said, "but
I'll watch my (100) race more and when I win, I'll see my excitement and that feeling gets back in me.”
--Reuters, North Carolina
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