The Hindu : Greene is confident, but Montgomery uncertain

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 20, 2003

Sport

Sport - Athletics

Greene is confident, but Montgomery uncertain

By Jere Longman

SANTA CLARA (California) JUNE 19. As Maurice Greene, the reigning Olympic champion at 100 metres and former World record-holder in 9.79 seconds, stood at the lectern during a news conference on Wednesday, a hand went up in back of the room.

The questioner was Tim Montgomery, the current World record-holder in 9.78 seconds.

``You know the pressure of the World record?'' Montgomery asked. ``Would you like to have it back?''

``I will get it back,'' Greene responded.

The question seemed an extraordinary admission by Montgomery that he was uncomfortable with the scrutiny and the expectation that come with the designation of world's fastest human. While Greene was ever the confident showman, Montgomery appeared meek, uncertain.

This should have been a celebratory season for him. Montgomery and his companion, the Olympic sprint champion Marion Jones, are expecting a child next month. The U.S. track and field championships begin on Thursday at nearby Stanford University.

The World championships are ahead in August in Paris, where Montgomery set the 100m record at a meet last September. He was supposed to enjoy this year as king of the track. He may yet receive another coronation in Paris, but the sprinting crown rests uneasily on his head.

Since last fall, Montgomery and Jones have left their former coach, Trevor Graham, and discarded another, the discredited Charlie Francis, who admitted facilitating the steroid use that cost the Canadian Ben Johnson his gold medal at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Such a controversy bloomed that Montgomery said he considered scrapping the whole outdoor season.

Associating with Francis led to publicly stated concerns by track and field's national and world governing bodies, threats from European meet directors and rebuke from some fellow athletes. The relationship was severed under pressure last winter, but it threatened the credibility of Montgomery and Jones in a sport with a tarnishing history of drug use.

With the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens only 14 months away, Montgomery is essentially coaching himself in Raleigh, N.C. He has run the 100m only three times outdoors this season — twice in 10.04 seconds, and once in 10.11, fast but far from the world-leading 9.93 by Patrick Johnson of Australia and the 9.94 posted by Greene.

Given an automatic berth in the world championships at 100 metres because he is the defending champion, Greene will run only the 200m at the national championships. He is not likely to meet Montgomery head to head until the worlds in Paris. There is time for Montgomery to regain his form, but the burden he carries now appears heavy.

``As I was going after Maurice for the last six years, I see what he was under,'' Montgomery said at the news conference.

He later said that he was not plaintively asking Greene to take back the record, but challenging him to try. His words, though, sounded more like a plea than a dare.

``He doesn't think he deserves it,'' Greene said in an interview.

Without a coach, Montgomery said Jones was timing him at practice and he was watching videotape on his own, trying to correct flaws in his technique. A coach is like a father figure, he said, someone in whom a sprinter places full trust. He said he would take his time to find the right coach, even if that meant sacrificing this season.

Until then?

``I just go out now and say, `Let's go back to when you were 19 years old, get down and let's run,'`` Montgomery, who is 28, said.

The rain and clouds of this season seem to be parting and the sun is starting to shine, he said, predicting he could run under 10 seconds this weekend.

``I'm out here to show that I can do it with someone or without someone,'' he said, referring to the lack of a coach.

The rift with Graham, Montgomery told Reuters on Wednesday, occurred because Jones grew concerned that she had not been improving her speed. Greene, the Olympic champion, called the split ``stupid.''

``This man coaches you to a world record and you can't talk over a problem?'' Greene said of Montgomery. He added, ``I've learned you have to do what's best for yourself, not what somebody else thinks is best for you.''

Montgomery said he had respect for Greene as a sprinter but not as a person.

Jones and Montgomery trained secretively with Francis until they were spotted last December in Toronto by a photographer. Wednesday, Montgomery said he was only 12 during the 1988 Olympics, and that he judged people by their character, not their past. Talent and technique, not simply drugs, allowed Johnson to run the 100m in 9.79 seconds, Montgomery said. In consulting Francis, he said, ``I just wanted to hear what was the technique for 9.79.''

Neither Montgomery nor Jones has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, and Francis has since renounced the use of banned substances. But the sport's blemished history has lent it a certain cynicism.

``Whatever they do now this summer, their performances will be tainted by this,'' Paula Radcliffe of England, the women's World record-holder in the marathon, told The Times of London in February, before Jones said she was pregnant and would skip this season.

Asked if he thought his credibility had been damaged, Montgomery said on Wednesday: ``If your wife is an alcoholic, does that make you an alcoholic? Are you tainted because you are married to your wife?''

His agent, Charles Wells, tried to deflect all questions about Francis so that Montgomery could focus on his running. Perhaps Montgomery is right and sunshine will soon replace the clouds. He sounded more hopeful than certain. — Copyright, New York Times News Service

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