EUGENE, Ore. -- In the final strides of his race, Andrew Wheating had already begun to process the disappointment. It was the 1,500 meters at the USA Track and Field national championships Saturday afternoon at storied Hayward Field. (Where, as a University of Oregon sophomore in 2008, he had made the U.S. Olympic team -- and rocked the Hayward house -- with a stretch-running second-place finish in the 800 meters, the most emotional race of that year's Trials).
DES MOINES, Iowa -- At their best, Jeremy Wariner and Sanya Richards-Ross make the very difficult look very easy. Their job is to run once around a track -- 400 meters -- faster than seven opponents. It's painful work, a mix of speed and stamina and more technical execution than you might imagine.
BERLIN -- Allyson Felix and LaShawn Merritt ruled their events on Friday night at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, and there should be no doubting their supremacy in their respective races. Both U.S. runners came into this year's world championships in Berlin with something to prove. Felix entered as the two-time defending world champion at 200 meters, but she settled for silver behind Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown at last summer's Olympics in Beijing. Merritt entered as the Olympic 400-meter champion who was still getting second billing before the event here because his teammate, Jeremy Wariner, the Olympic silver medalist, had won the previous two world titles and the 2004 Olympics.
American Allyson Felix cruised to her third straight women's 200 meters gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin -- but compatriot Jeremy Wariner failed to secure his own hat-trick in the men's 400m.
Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt continued his unstoppable streak of form with a comprehensive win in the 100 meters at the Zurich Golden League meeting on Friday.
BEIJING -- Think back to the end of last summer to another warm, humid place. Team USA is leaving Osaka, Japan, and the world championships of track and field with its stars clearly in order.
The under-performing United States track and field team suffered further humiliation on Thursday as both their sprint relay squads exited the Olympics after blunders on the final changeovers.
Beijing report
updated: Fri Aug 22 2008 00:01:00
CNN's Larry Smith updates all the latest news from the Beijing Games.
It's the iconic image of modern American sprinting: Michael Johnson, golden shoes flashing past the clock reading 19.32 seconds at the end of the 1996 Olympic 200-meter dash. It was so much faster than anyone had ever run, that even Johnson looked stunned, throwing open his arms and screaming as he caught a glimpse of the time. He was alone, on top of the world.
He watched on Thursday night from a seat high in Section J in the old wooden grandstand on the Hayward Field backstretch, anonymously punching a stopwatch while surrounded by another sellout crowd at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials. Clyde Hart is 75 years old; he has been coaching track and field for more than five decades, and he is to 400-meter runners what Bill Walsh once was to quarterbacks.
EUGENE, Ore. -- The U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials resume Thursday at Hayward Field. Thoughts, past and future.
World champion Bernard Lagat earned a place in the American Olympic athletics team in Beijing when he won the 5,000 meters at the Track and Field Trials in Oregon.
Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba demolished the 5,000 meters world record of compatriot Meseret Defa with a time of 14 minutes 11.15 seconds at the Bislett Games on Friday.
Sprinter Tyson Gay was expected to chase three gold medals at the Olympic Games in Beijing. A year ago at the World Track and Field Championships in Osaka, Japan, Gay rushed to the first page of history by winning the 100 meters, (humbling world record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica) 200 meters and anchoring Team USA's gold medal-winning 4x100-meter relay.
Kenyan-born Bernard Lagat of the United States completed the first 1,500-meter and 5,000-meter winning double in track and field world championship history on Sunday.
Olympic champion and world record holder Liu Xiang of China won the men's 110 meters hurdles at the world championships in Osaka Friday to complete a set of medals.
Bernard Lagat became the first American man to win a global 1,500 meter title for 99 years when he swept to victory down the home straight at the world championships on Wednesday.
Favored Americans Tyson Gay and Jeremy Wariner came through qualification rounds in impressive style at the world championships in Osaka on Tuesday.
The world track and field championships begin here Saturday morning. Eight matchups I'm looking forward to seeing:
American sprint sensation Tyson Gay fell victim to unfavorable conditions again as he was frustrated in his bid to set a new world record over 100 meters at the London Grand Prix on Friday.
Paralympian star Oscar Pistorius, who as a double amputee runs with carbon fiber blades, will take on Olympic and world 400 meters champion Jeremy Wariner at a Grand Prix meeting in Sheffield next month.
Asafa Powell ran his 12th legal sub-10 seconds 100 meters of the season to clinch victory on day one of the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart on Saturday.
Asafa Powell of Jamaica equaled his own 100-meter world record of 9.77 seconds at the Weltklasse Golden League meeting in Zurich on Friday.
Kerron Clement ran the fastest 400 meters hurdles in the world this year, despite stuttering at the final barrier in the U.S. championships on Saturday.
Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell threw down the gauntlet once again in his much-hyped duel with American Justin Gatlin at the Bislett Games.
Jeremy Wariner anchored defending champions the United States to victory in the men's 4 x 400 meters relay on Sunday for his second gold of the world championships.
Ladji Doucoure claimed France's first gold at this year's world athletics championships by winning the men's 110 meters hurdles title in Helsinki.
A violent thunderstorm in the Finnish capital Helsinki halted competition on the fourth day of the world athletics championships on Tuesday.
Olympic gold medalists Justin Gatlin, Jeremy Wariner, Shawn Crawford, Dwight Phillips and Joanna Hayes head a 131-member U.S. team for the world athletics championships.
Saif Saeed Shaheen shattered the world steeplechase record at the Brussels Golden League meeting.
Britain took a shock gold in the men's Olympic 4x100 meters relay, pipping favorites the United States by just one hundredth of a second.
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