Galen Rupp answers his critics

The community that closely follows American distance running is full of zeal, snark and great passion.

Last week, in a race in Belgium, Galen Rupp broke the American record in the 10,000 meters, and by more than 11 seconds, finishing in 26 minutes and 48 seconds. That was his personal-best time, by more than 22 seconds.

Rupp's run was the fourth-fastest in the world in 2011. He is now the 16th-fastest man in history at 10k; his 26:48 is the 29th-fastest of all time.

Chris Solinsky had held the American record, 26:59.60, set in May, 2010. Solinsky's run was the 81st-fastest 10k ever run; Solinsky is now the 39th-fastest man in 10k history.

All those superlatives -- and what did Rupp get from the American track and field community?

Along with the praise -- a healthy dose of angst and criticism.

No American man has won an Olympic medal in the 10k since Billy Mills in 1964. There's a lot of pent-up emotion. Bring on the therapy sessions!

"Dear Galen Rupp: Time to Move Up to the Marathon," said one poster to the message boards at LetsRun.com, criticizing Rupp's finishing kick.

As was duly noted, Rupp was blown away in the last lap of the race by eventual winner Kenenisa Bekele and Kenya's Lucas Rotich.

Bekele won in a world-leading 26:43.16. Rotich took second, Rupp third. Bekele, for the unfamiliar, is the world-record holder and arguably the greatest 10k (and 5k) runner of all time.

More than one critic also noted that Rupp was blown away at the close of last month's world championship 10k in Daegu, South Korea, finishing seventh.

Also on the LetsRun.com message boards: the assertion that Solinsky's effort, at the beginning of the 2010 outdoor season, was just as good as Rupp's, at the end of the year and on a super-fast track.

The event in Belgium, in Brussels, called the Van Damme meet, is notorious for speed. Dating back to 1996, 12 of the 16 fastest 10k runners of all time have turned in their best at Van Damme, including Bekele's world-record 26:17.53, on August 26, 2005.

Wait -- there's more.

Alberto Salazar, the 1980s distance great who is now coaching both Rupp and Britain's Mo Farah in Oregon -- Farah won silver in Daegu in the 10k and gold in the 5k -- said the following in comments published on the IAAF, or international track and field association, website:

"… When you run World Championships in hot weather you've got to deal with it.

"But even though Galen is not a big guy he's still big compared to a Kenyan or an Ethiopian. It's a disadvantage if you are a Caucasian running in the heat versus an African, you just have more body mass and it's going to be harder."

What's an American record-holder to do?

First things first.

"I mean, I don't -- I don't think it has anything to do with being white," Rupp said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters, asked if it was a disadvantage to be a white runner in a discipline dominated by dark-skinned Africans.

"I think his point in saying that is more that I'm just a bigger guy than a lot of these guys," adding a moment later, "It's easier for them to stay cooler longer. I think that was the point [Salazar] was trying to make with that statement. You know, I agree with it."

As for his finishing kick -- Rupp agrees with his critics. He needs to get stronger.

It's a process, he said.

Farah has urged patience. Salazar has urged patience.

If there is anything the American distance community ought to understand, that's for sure it -- if there is to be greatness in the 10k, it takes patience.

Rupp, for instance, finished 13th in the 10k at the 2008 Olympics. To go from 13th in 2008 to seventh in 2011 -- that's definitely moving up, isn't it?

"Sometimes it takes time," Rupp said. "It takes years of doing a lot of strength workouts and to keep the same approach we have been taking. You have got to be able to finish fast in slow races to be able to close in fast races."

A couple years ago, he said, it was "hang on as long as you can." Now it's the "fun part, where I'm going to be there at the end."

He said, "For me to make that next jump, I have to be sound. I'm close to making that big jump. I think I have the pieces in place to do something well. I have great people around me and full confidence they are doing the right thing."

'...Big things' for 2011 U.S. track team

DAEGU, South Korea -- Christian Taylor, 21 years old, won the triple jump Sunday at the 2011 track championships with an audacious leap of 17.96 meters, 58 feet, 11 1/4 inches, the fifth-best in history. He declared afterward, in the tone of a respectful competitor, not a jerk, "I came to win." Will Claye is just 20 years old. Both Claye and Taylor were going to be seniors at the University of Florida until turning pro. What are the odds that these would be the two guys finishing 1-3 at the worlds in the same event? Yet that's what happened, Claye jumping a personal-best 17.5, or 57-5. He said, "We came out here, did our best and ended up doing big things."

The American team did, indeed, do big things.

First and foremost, it topped the medal table, with 25, the second-highest medal total at a worlds for Team USA, one shy of the 26 won by the 1991 and 2007 teams.

But for the thoroughly unexpected, the American team actually could have reached the elusive 30 mark, which would have been sweet validation indeed for Doug Logan, the vanquished former chief executive of USA Track & Field, who had said all along that 30 was eminently do-able -- only to get sent packing before the plans he had put in place to get to 30 could be realized.

The Americans put four men in the final 12 in shot put, an event the U.S. has dominated in recent years. None got a medal. The U.S. has also been strong in the 400-meter men's hurdles; no medals there in Daegu despite two finalists. The Americans took home no medals in pole-vaulting, men's or women's, a traditional strength.

And, once again, in the very last event of the championships, the men's 400 relay, an event won by the Jamaicans -- anchored by Usain Bolt -- in world-record time, 37.04, the American men did not get through without disaster.

The 2008 Olympics, the 2009 world champs and now these 2011 worlds -- all DQs. This one involved a collision on the final exchange involving American Darvis Patton and Britain's Harry Aikines-Aryeetey. Details, even after repeated viewings of the tape, remain sketchy.

"I felt his big knee in my arm," Aikines-Aryeetey said in a television interview.

Under no circumstances would the Americans have beaten the Jamaicans. Even so, Justin Gatlin, who had run the second leg, said, "You can't tell me we weren't going to set an American record."

Stepping back to assess the U.S. team's "big things" over the nine days of the meet:

The 12 medals won by the U.S. women are the most-ever; the 1993 team won 11.

Allyson Felix didn't win individual gold in her 200/400 double. But she did win silver in the 400, bronze in the 200 and gold in both the 400 and 1600 relays. Four is the most medals ever won by a woman at one meet; American Gwen Torrance, Kathrin Krabbe of Germany and Marita Koch of East Germany also won four.

If Felix had been a country, the four medals she won would have tied her for seventh on the 2011 medals chart.

Also: those four medals lift Felix's career world-championships total won to 10. That ties her with Carl Lewis for most medals won by an American.

Jenny Simpson, 25 and still a newlywed (last October), won the first gold for the United States in the women's 1500 since 1983. Then, a couple days later, Matthew Centrowitz, 21, a fifth-year senior at Oregon, won bronze in the 1500.

The U.S. men swept the high jump, long jump and triple jump golds. The U.S. men -- Trey Hardee and Ashton Eaton -- went 1-2 in the decathlon. Dwight Phillips' long jump victory was his fourth at the worlds, to go along with his 2004 Olympic gold.

Phillips is 33, turning 34 in October. Bernard Lagat, who took silver Sunday night in the 5000, is 36, turning 37 in December. Lagat is the 2007 5000 and 1500 champ and, as well, the 2009 1500 bronze and 5000 silver medalist; he won silver at the 2004 Games in Athens when he was still running for Kenya.

Lagat, Phillips, Simpson, Centrowitz -- they illustrate the mix of veteran and younger talent that made up this team. That same sort of mix is likely to be on display next year for the United States track team at the Olympics in London.

"If Jenny can do it … if Matt can do it … if Bernard can still do it … I'm proud of my team," Lagat said.

Taylor, asked about the U.S. men sweeping the jumps, said, "It's about time. That's what I would say. Like I said, to have Dwight in the same group and having that family -- you know it's like, I wouldn't say a brother, but he's kind of old, so kind of like a dad! I mean, it's just been a great experience.

"The U.S. definitely represented and showed the world that we are the best team in the world."

So -- what does this performance here in Daegu mean for London?

Maybe a lot and perhaps very little.

LaShawn Merritt, the 2008 400 gold medalist, took silver in the event here and anchored the gold medal-winning 1600 relay. His future remains uncertain pending the outcome of litigation stemming from a 21-month doping-related suspension he has already served.

Tyson Gay, who had been America's best 100 and 200 sprinter, was hurt. Jeremy Wariner, the 2004 400 gold medalist -- hurt. Chris Solinsky, the 10,000-meter American record-holder -- hurt. Bryan Clay, the 2008 Olympic decathlon champ -- hurt. Standout hurdler Lolo Jones -- hurt. None of them competed here.

Do any or all of them make it to London? No one can predict.

Who knows whether Gay, who has struggled to stay healthy, can get fit?

Beyond which -- the brutal nature of the U.S. Trials, in which you're top-three or you stay home -- allows for no sentiment.

Just ask Phillips. He finished fourth at the Trials in 2008.

Or Simpson. "I mean, all this can do is bolster my confidence," she said.

But now Daegu is over, and London awaits. And she said, "I'm very cognizant of the fact this doesn't mean that I'm any shoo-in for any race following this."

Let Bolt run

DAEGU, South Korea -- It's my fault, and only my fault, for false-starting in the 100, Usain Bolt said. He also said, and he was not boasting nor was he being disrespectful, that he believes he would have run in the 9.6s or maybe 9.7-low and that without the false start his teammate Yohan Blake, who went on to win the 100 in 9.92, would have run 9.8.

Got that?

He, Bolt, intimated that he would have won the 100. Absolutely, positively, unequivocally, he would have won.

That is because he, Usain Bolt, is the best.

After watching Bolt run the fourth-fastest 200 of all time Saturday night -- 19.40, and from Lane 3, a lane he said he had never run in before, a tighter lane that required more from him than Lane 5 or 6, where he usually operates -- who wants to argue the point?

That is the shame of the false-start rule that robbed everyone in the entire world of the thrill of watching Bolt in the 100.

That rule will be up for debate here Sunday. Don't expect much. The IAAF president, Lamine Diack, told Reuters on Saturday there is "no chance" the rule will be changed by next summer's London Olympics.

"I think it was Bolt disqualified by false start -- I did not expect this. [But] I work for this rule. I like very much this rule. I vote for having this rule."

Why? Two reasons. One, because of gamesmanship by the athletes in the blocks under the prior rule, which charged a first false start to the entire field; only a second led to disqualification of the particular athlete. Second, and perhaps even more important, such manipulation was dragging proceedings out, which made the timing of meets unpredictable for TV.

The president has a point.

But the president is not facing the withering criticism here that he would be facing were Bolt to have been booted from the Olympics themselves.

I haven't canvassed anyone at NBC on the matter but it stands to reason that for the hundreds of millions of dollars the network paid for the rights to broadcast the London Games -- they'd very much like to see Usain Bolt run the 100. If it takes an extra four minutes, I'm guessing they'd be willing to accommodate that.

Same goes for the other major networks in other countries around the globe.

The Olympics are different than the world championships. It's that simple.

It's not as easy to say, as the president would like, that the rule is the rule, and that's that, particularly when his primary rationale -- that it's better for TV his way -- doesn't cut it.

In London in 2012, it wouldn't be better for TV. In fact, it would be worse. Way worse.

The essential point is that the Olympics needs stars, and in particular track and field needs stars. Bolt and Michael Phelps are the biggest stars there are in the Olympic sphere. People want to see them. Why do you think NBC is paying hundreds of millions of dollars?

It's not -- and no offense to their fans -- for team handball.

So let's be real. Whether in Olympic Park or watching on TV, fans should be able to see Bolt do his thing.

That's what Bolt was talking about at that news conference. He knows, we know, even Yohan Blake knows who the best sprinter in the world is.

It's not Yohan Blake.

For public consumption, by the way, Bolt played it perfectly Saturday night. He said he would not be lobbying for a rules change. He said, "It has taught me a lesson to focus and to stay in the blocks," adding, "You should wait and listen. The guy with the gun is the guy who gives the commands … I have learned and wish to move on from that."

He learned so well, in fact, that his reaction time. 0.193, was by far the slowest in the field Saturday evening. And still he blew everybody away. Walter Dix of the United States took second, in 19.7. Christophe Lemaitre of France got third, in 19.8.

Bolt's best time in 2011 in the 200, coming into the worlds, was 19.86. He improved that here by 46-hundredths of a second. The man is lights-out fantastic at championship meets.

Bolt now owns three of the four fastest-times ever in the 200. He ran 19.19 in Berlin, at the 2009 worlds. He ran 19.30 at the 2008 Games. Michael Johnson ran 19.32 in Atlanta, at the 1996 Games.

With a better lane in the finals, and better fitness, it's not inconceivable that Bolt can run even faster than 19.19 in London next summer. "I'm going to work hard," he said.

Everybody deserves to see the results of that. It's that simple.

'Believe': Matthew Centrowitz does

DAEGU, South Korea -- For 20 years, Americans -- whether native-born or naturalized -- proved non-factors in one of the glamour races in track and field, the 1500. Now, though, it appears the Americans are again for real.

On Saturday night, Matthew Centrowitz, who this fall will be a fifth-year senior at the University of Oregon, won the bronze medal in the 1500 at the 2011 track and field world championships. "Taking that victory lap," he said afterward, "I still didn't think it was real."

It was, and it adds to these recent performances:

Thursday: Jenny Simpson wins the women's 1500.

2009 worlds, in Berlin: Bernard Lagat takes bronze. That race was particularly noteworthy because, of the 12 guys in the final, three were American. All three were naturalized Americans, and damn proud of it: Lagat, Lopez Lomong and Leo Manzano.

2007, in Osaka: Lagat wins. He also wins the 5000.

Before that -- there was a long, long gap.

You have to go all the way back to Jim Spivey, in 1987 in Rome, who took bronze.

The two medals here mark the first time since 1983 that Americans have won medals in the men's and women's 1500.

The same day that Simpson won her final, Centrowitz won his semifinal.

It made him realize, he said, that he had a chance -- a real chance.

Later that day, he called home and told his folks he had made the final. His dad, Matt, ran in the 1976 Summer Games and was on the 1980 U.S. team as well; he was All-American at Oregon. "He was just pumped," Matthew said. He caught his mom, Beverly, as she was driving to work; Matthew said she cried.

In retrospect, of course he won the semifinal. The day before, as he posted to his Twitter feed, he had been in the cafeteria and Cher's song, "Believe," started playing: "In Korea … whats the odds of 1 of my fav songs coming on?!"

A college senior who not only listens to Cher but admits to it in a public forum -- that takes a certain amount of confidence in one's self, right?

That same guy was loose and confident in the ready room. Nick Willis, the Beijing Games 1500 silver medalist, who is now all of 28, said after the race that he was looking over at Centrowitz, 21, who was laughing and joking while waiting in that ready room, and it reminded him of a young Nick Willis: "There was no pressure."

There were two Kenyans in the race, 2008 Olympic champ Asbel Kiprop and Silas Kiplagat. Two Moroccans. An Ethiopian. An Algerian. Willis.

In other words -- the field was stacked. And Centrowitz felt zero pressure. "I think I looked at the start list for this final the least of any race I raced all year," Centrowitz said. "I knew everyone was going to be good -- so what was the point of looking at their [personal-bests], or who was in it? I knew I was going to have to come out and give a hard showing no matter what … not analyzing who was in it, just -- no expectations, just having fun."

Centrowitz's strategy is to run from the front. "I get more excited up there. I'm more engaged," he said, adding, "I like to stay up there," and that was his plan in Saturday's final as well.

Willis led the pack through the first two laps, with Centrowitz right behind.

Then the Kenyans took over. At 1200 meters Kiplagat had the lead, and Centrowitz found himself slightly behind, and boxed in.

"I mean, they went so hard with like 350 to go," he said. Relax, he told himself. They'll come back to you.

"Sure enough, once 200 hit, each 50 -- it was just one more guy, one more guy and then I found myself in my own position, just digging down," on the outside, coming down the stretch, crossing the line in third.

There used to be a time when having "U-S-A" on your jersey seemed to doom you in the 1500. Maybe that time is over.

"As we have seen," Centrowitz said, "anything can happen. When you put good training in, when you stay consistent, good things happen, and that's what I believed when I came here."

Dwight Phillips' "1111" destiny

DAEGU, South Korea -- Fate is a funny thing. When he got here, Dwight Phillips was randomly assigned bib number "1111." Maybe, if you believe in these things, it wasn't so random.

Three times a world champion already, a win here would make -- obviously -- four. And there it was, spelled out on that bib. Four one's in a row. "Divine intervention," Phillips said.

With a second jump Friday night of 8.45 meters, or 27 feet, 8 3/4 inches, Phillips got that fourth championship. In so doing, he staked his claim as one of the finest long-jump champions in American history.

Bob Beamon. Mike Powell. Carl Lewis. These are names that are part not just of U.S. sports history but of American culture.

Of course, the fact is that all three of those gentlemen competed at a time when track and field occupied a very different place in the American sports firmament.

Beamon threw down his insane jump in Mexico City in 1968; Powell, the all-time jump in Tokyo 20 years ago; Lewis, that memorable last Olympic leap in Atlanta in 1996.

It's Dwight Phillips' lot that he is jumping now, when he has to fight for air time on ESPN with football, football and more football.

It's Dwight Phillips' fortune that, if Joe Fan were picked out of a crowd in the United States and  asked to name somebody famous in track and field, the likely two answers would be Carl Lewis or Usain Bolt, and one of those guys is Jamaican.

It's Dwight Phillips' predicament that, on the night that he won a fourth championship, to go along with the Olympic title he won in 2004, some number of the American writers here seemed way more interested in whether Allyson Felix, who got a bronze Friday night in the 200 to go along with the silver she won earlier here in the 400, was going to attempt the same double next year in London at the Olympics. Moreover, the four Americans in Friday night's shot put final -- none won a medal, and that created a buzz, too.

What's Dwight Phillips supposed to do about any of that?

Nothing, he figures, but be himself -- gracious in victory and, when it's the case, in defeat as well.

"I'm  a very positive person," he said. "LIfe for me is about being happy and smiling. I think I just enjoy  winning and I know how to deal with losing. Some people can't fathom losing. It kind of crushes them when they do. Me -- I embrace defeat just as I do victory."

When you lose, he said, "Obviously you're mad. You're angry at yourself. But then -- it's only track and field. It's only a track meet. There are so many more important things in life than athletics, and I try to keep things in perspective. Life is precious. You only live one time. I think you should live it with a smile."

And when you win, he said, and now he had a big smile, "It's euphoric."

Phillips knew losing and winning just this year.

At the U.S. championships, he finished tenth. Dreadful. He didn't even make the final.

That's what happens when you're hurt -- a woeful left Achilles tendon.  But, he said, he knew that if he could get himself healthy, and stay healthy, he could deliver here. "It's not how you respond in victory," he said. "It's how you respond in defeat."

Let's face it. At championships, Dwight Phillips is money.

The 2003 worlds -- gold. The 2004 Olympics -- gold. The 2005 worlds -- gold. The 2007 worlds -- bronze. The 2009 worlds -- gold.

Here, in qualifying, he jumped a season's-best 8.32, or 27-3 3/4, to lead the field.

In his first jump in the final, he went 8.31, 27-3 1/4. That was exactly the same distance he went in his qualifying jump in Athens in 2004. At this point, who wants to believe this stuff was all random? With all these omens? "It was déja vù all over again," Phillips said.

The second jump, that 8.45, nailed the gold.

"I came into this competition -- I wasn't even picked to make the final," he said, and that's true, publications such as Britain's Athletics Weekly noting that Phillips had "been in indifferent form."

Maybe that was a typographical error. As he proved yet again, at the worlds Dwight Phillips is, indeed, in different form.

"When it comes to long jump, over the last decade, I think it's about longevity -- if you compete over numerous years," he said. "And over the last decade, I've held it down for the USA. I've done my best to represent us well with integrity. I'm so grateful that I can even be mentioned [along] with those great athletes," meaning Lewis, Powell and Beamon.

"I admire them all so much."

Do you ever wish, he was asked, that you could go back in time -- to jump against each or all of them?

"Yeah, yeah. Oh, man, that would have been amazing. Every era has their own athlete. And this era belongs to Dwight Phillips."

Three U.S. golds, bang-bang-bang

DAEGU, South Korea -- An American woman hadn't won the 1500 meters at the track and field world championships since 1983. Those were the very first worlds, in Helsinki. And the winner of that race was the one and only Mary Decker. That's how long ago it was. In the high jump, an American man hadn't won a medal at these championships since 1991. Not just gold, any color. Twenty years.

An American woman hadn't won the 400-meter hurdles in 16 years.

Jennifer Simpson won the 1500, Jesse Williams won the high jump and Lashinda Williams the hurdles in bang-bang-bang fashion here Thursday night.

The rapid-fire string of victories, while cause for celebration in the American camp, pushing the U.S. into a tie with Russia for the lead for overall medals here in Daegu, with 12, also underscores the incredible conundrum that is the U.S. track and field program.

The United States produces, and keeps producing, world-class track and field athletes. But it does so in about as haphazard a way as one could imagine.

There is no bureau, no directorate, no anything responsible for finding, shaping, organizing a path from high school to college to the world championships to the Olympics. To generalize, it all kinda-sorta just happens.

That explains why, systemically, the United States of America can go 20 years without producing a medalist in the high jump. Why nearly 30 years can pass without a medal in the 1500, which is just astonishing. Anyone ever been to Boulder? Flagstaff? Mammoth Lakes?

There is no federalized sport system in the United States, and this is not to suggest there should be. Instead, the fantastic efforts of individual American athletes on a night like Thursday -- which tend to draw comparisons to the glory days of the U.S. track program -- obscure the structural problems that get in the way of what could be.

Because if the United States ever got serious, really serious, about winning in track and field -- watch out.

As it is, it's simply a matter of talent and moment.

The men's shot put here Friday night could be epic; of the 12 guys in the field, four are American. In the long jump, Dwight Phillips went a season-best 8.32 meters, or 27 feet, 3 3/4 inches, to lead everyone in qualifying Thursday morning; that final is Friday night, too. So is the women's 200; three of the eight in that final are American.

Meanwhile, the women's high jump on Saturday could be Brigetta Barrett's coming-out party on the world stage.

Talent and moment.

Simpson is a former steeplechaser. She used to be known as Jenny Barringer; she got married last year. She had the flu earlier this summer and came here with virtually no pre-race hype. In the semifinal, though, she showed was here to run. In the final, she ran easily and fluidly in and then kicked strong to the line, crossing in 4:05.40.

In the moments after she realized that she had won, Simpson looked simply stunned. Later, she asked rhetorically, "Wouldn't you be if you won a gold medal?"

She added, "I had another little Prefontaine moment," a reference to the 2009 Pre Classic in Eugene, Ore., when she was still in college at Colorado, and ran a 3:59.9 1500, breaking the NCAA record by more than six seconds.

"You know, I'm coming down the homestretch, and I'm thinking, 'How did I get here?' But it was just an incredible feeling, and I knew coming off the curve that I had another couple of gears and I thought, 'I'm going to be really hard to beat now.' "

Williams roared through the early rounds of the jumps without a miss. That proved critical.

Throughout, he knew what he was up against -- his own, and American, history.

These were his third world championships -- he had also competed in Helsinki in 2005 and Osaka in 2007 -- but the first time he had made a final. He is a self-styled high-jump history buff; he also knew full well that the last time Americans had medaled was in Tokyo in 1991, when Charles Austin won gold and Hollis Conway bronze.

Moreover, Williams came to Daegu as the presumptive favorite -- his jump earlier this year in Eugene, Ore., of 2.37 meters, or 7 feet, 9 1/4 inches, was the best anywhere.

Until he got to 2.37 here Thursday, Williams didn't miss; he was clean all the way to 2.35. Everyone else kept missing.

At 2.37, only he and Russia's Aleksey Dmitrik were left. By the time the bar was raised to that height, Dmitrik had already missed three times. Again, Williams -- zero.

If Dmitrik could clear 2.37, it would be a new game. But he couldn't.

Williams tried to clear but couldn't. No matter. The gold was his.

"I knew that 20 years ago, Charles Austin won it in Tokyo, and I knew that I could re-live what he lived, today," Williams said. "It's unbelievable, because the U.S. has so much talent in the event."

Dick Fosbury, the 1968 high-jump gold medalist who is now president of the World Olympians Assn., said in an e-mail, "This is fantastic news and I am so happy for Jesse," adding that he had been asked repeatedly recently about Russian jumpers and pointed out that the Americans, in Williams, had a guy who "could win this or medal."

He also said, "While we were disappointed in the Beijing results," Williams finishing 19th and not even making the final, "I really felt we could be back at the top by 2012. And now we are."

Demus, meanwhile, has been around for nearly a decade. She is a two-time world sliver medalist, in 2005 and 2009.

In 2007, she gave birth to twin boys, Duaine and Dontay. In winning Thursday in 52.47, she ran the best time in the world this year and broke the American record, 52.61, set by Kim Batten at the 1995 world championships in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Lashinda Demus had a ready answer for her success. "Only the strong survive in this game," she said, and there's no one stronger than her mother, Yolanda.

Yolanda Demus is a big fan of games such as Angry Birds. If you practice, Mrs. Demus said, you get better at them. So, she told her daughter, get out there and master the hurdles the way I have mastered Angry Birds.

You want a system? That's a system.

"She listens to every word I say," Mrs. Demus said. "That's one good thing about her. She listens."

LaShawn Merritt: 'Losing only makes you stronger'

DAEGU, South Korea -- At the top of the stretch, it seemed that LaShawn Merritt, America's best 400-meter sprinter, had scripted the perfect coda to the bizarre saga of his lengthy suspension for taking a -- no easy way around this -- male-enhancement product two years ago. After roaring through the prelims and the semifinals, he had rounded the final curve and was in the lead; 100 more meters and victory would be his.

Alas, they don't write storybook tales quite like they used to -- not when there's litigation still ongoing, and Merritt's status for next year's Olympics is still in doubt, and the International Olympic Committee is bound and determined to keep him out of the London Games, even though Merritt is a nice guy and made a dumb mistake by going to a 7-Eleven and buying a product called ExtenZe and has paid for this mistake a thousand times over already in shame and embarrassment.

He deserves better, and so much of it could have all been wiped away if -- if, if, if -- he could have held on down the stretch on a perfect Tuesday night in Daegu, a night made for redemption.

Instead, Kirani James of Grenada, a two-time NCAA champion at the University of Alabama who turns 19 on Thursday, caught Merritt with about three meters to go, then passed him.

James finished first in a personal-best 44.60.

Merritt took second in 44.63.

Belgium's Kevin Borlee finished third, in 44.90.

James is the third-youngest male champion at the worlds; the youngest 400 winner; the first-ever medalist from Grenada.

"I don't need to be the Usain Bolt of the 400 meters," James said later when a reporter asked about the Jamaican superstar, as if that was somehow a natural comparison for everyone from a Caribbean island. "I'm happy to be Kirani James of Grenada."

Merritt said he wasn't quite sure why his gold turned silver at the last moment. "Just mechanical issues," he said. "I was focused on the finish line. Like I said, I didn't quite execute the way I wanted to. The 400 is all about execution. I came in with a game plan. Didn't quite stick to it. Not quite sure what went wrong throughout the race."

Merritt's immediate future now brings him the 1600 relay, later in this meet. Over that he can exert a measure of control.

Beyond that -- his fate is considerably more uncertain.

Merritt's suspension for taking ExtenZe ran to 21 months. It ended in July.

An IOC rule that took effect in 2008 purports to prevent athletes who receive doping bans of more than six months from competing at the next Summer or Winter Games.

The U.S. Olympic Committee's position, on Merritt's behalf, is that the "six-month rule," as it is widely known, amounts to double jeopardy -- a second penalty for a single offense.

The IOC has been resolute. It's their Games, they say, and they should have the right to decide who gets to take part. "The position of the IOC is very clear," president Jacques Rogge said at a news conference here a couple days ago. "For us, it is not a matter of sanction. It is a matter of eligibility."

Sport's top tribunal, the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, after a hearing on the matter in August, said it intends to issue a verdict next month.

If CAS rules in Merritt's favor, the path to the Games is clear -- win, place or show at the U.S. Trials, just like normal.

If CAS rules against him, he's out -- even though he's the 2008 Beijing 400 champion, the 2009 world champion and, now, the 2011 silver medalist.

Training by himself for all these past months, Merritt said as he worked here through the rounds, had been arduous and lonely. Talk about punishment.

Sometimes, he said, he had others to train with but, mostly, he had been alone, putting himself through the physical grind and, more demanding yet, the mental discipline of asking himself -- how bad did he want it? He did time trial after time trial after time trial. He did extra stretching.

If he had been four-hundredths of a second faster, this story would have a different ending.

It was not to be.

"Nobody has a perfect season," LaShawn Merritt said, and here was newfound maturity and experience talking. "Losing only makes you stronger."

Jillian Camarena-Williams makes shot-put, and love, history

DAEGU, South Korea -- Sure, technique helps. Right, being healthy is huge. But when you're in love, really truly madly in love, the kind of love they write about in books and they make movies about, when your husband is your soulmate, and you're out there in front of the cheering thousands, and you've got to will yourself to go places you've never gone before, he's there with you.

It's true love. It is.

That's the kind of love that Jillian Camarena-Williams and her husband, Dustin, have, and it's why she won a bronze medal in the shot put Monday night at the 2011 track and field world championships with a throw of 20.02 meters, or 65 feet, 8 1/4 inches -- the first medal of any kind for an American woman in the history of the track worlds.

It's love, and if it seems improbable that love is the reason why Jillian did something no American had ever done before, it's not improbable to Jillian, to Dustin or to her coach, Craig Carter. Because when she was asked, an American flag draped around her, to explain how she had just made history, she said, with zero hesitation, "I married that man over there and I have that man over there as my coach."

It's almost as if fate has been pointing Jillian and Dustin toward this moment -- and, you'd have to suggest, London next year.

They met at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials, where she was competing and he was an athletic trainer. She went on to the Games, finishing 12th. When she came back, she moved up to Utah, where he was based, to finish a master's degree. They were friends first, then more. They were married in September, 2009.

She throws a big heavy ball. He runs Ironman-style competitions. To be around them is to feel that sense of union and balance you meet in precious few couples. You know it intuitively when you meet such a couple. They have it.

These last two seasons have been breakthroughs. Coincidence?

Last September, in Zurich, she finished third, throwing 19.5, or 63-11 3/4.

This June in Eugene, she threw 19.76, or 64-10, the best American throw since Ramona Pagel's American record of 20.18, or 66-2 1/2, in San Diego in June 1988.

This summer, competing regularly on the Diamond League circuit, she finished in the top three four times, saying Monday at a late-night news conference that being in the show regularly gave her the confidence to not just think but know that she absolutely belonged in the ring with the other top women in the world.

In Paris on July 8, she equaled Pagel's American record -- 20.18.

Here Monday evening, she threw 19.63, or 64-5, in the first round. That put her into the lead, though she -- and everyone else -- knew it wouldn't last, not with New Zealand's Valerie Adams and Nadzeya Ostapchuk, among others, around.

Her next two throws were considerably shorter. She said later she was just going too fast. In Round 3, meanwhile, Adams went 20.04.

In Round 4, calmer, Jillian threw 20.02, the second-best effort of her career. That launched her into second place.

In that same round, Adams went 20.72. The gold would be hers unless someone came up with something extraordinary.

In Round 5, Ostapchuk heaved the ball 20.05. That put her into second, Jillian into third.

Jillian's final two throws: 18.8 and 19.44.

The exclamation point: In Round 6, Adams went 21.24, or 69-8 1/4, the longest throw outdoors in 11 years, an area record, a personal best and, for good measure the widest winning margin (by 1.19 meters) in the history of the event at the world championships. As well, the gold was Adams' third in a row at the world championships; she won bronze in Helsinki in 2005.

The previous best American effort, meanwhile, came from Connie Price-Smith, who finished fifth in 1997, with a throw of 19.00. Here in Daegu, Connie is the American women's head coach. After Jillian had finished posing for photos and talking to a couple reporters, she walked right over to Connie; they exchanged a knowing glance and then hugged each other, and it was hard to tell who was happier.

When they get back to the States, Jillian and Dustin are going to be moving from Utah down to Tucson, to work with Craig, at the University of Arizona.

"Now that she found him," Craig said, pointing to Dustin, "we had to find him a job!"

Then he said, seriously, mindful that the London Games are 11 months away, and that no one can tear asunder what it is that Dustin and Jillian have together, "If we keep her healthy, a lot of good things will happen."

No fear, one DQ, two golds

DAEGU, South Korea -- John Smith, the Southern California track coach for whom there are two ways -- his way and the highway -- has a mantra he particularly likes. Fear, he says, is nothing but "false evidence appearing real." There's no fear in anything, he says. Get out there and 100 percent do your best. Just execute.

Pretty simple stuff, amazingly powerful stuff, and on a Monday night in Daegu, it led to two remarkable races, and yet more incredible twists at a meet that seems to have been summoned by destiny to produce the unpredictable. They will be talking not just about the women's 100 but, especially, about the men's 110 hurdles at these 2011 world championships for a long, long time.

Carmelita Jeter and Jason Richardson train with John Smith. The day after Usain Bolt was disqualified for false-starting in the men's 100, this went down:

Jeter, who had for years been chasing the dream of being champion, hammered to victory in the women's 100. She is 31 years old, will be 32 in November, and some will doubtlessly find her speed and victory now incredulous. She ran 10.90 to win.

And in the 110 hurdles, Richardson, the fourth guy in the race behind the so-called Big Three, initially appeared to have won silver behind Cuba's Dayron Robles, with China's Liu Xiang third, and David Oliver, the expected American star, fifth.

Robles crossed in 13.14; Richardson in 13.16; Liu in 13.27. Oliver went 13.44.

Robles ran in Lane 5, Liu in 6. Liu staggered to the line. A video review made plain why. Robles had made contact with him late, and not just once but twice.

As the video showed, Robles had drifted way toward the outside of Lane 5.

The first contact came over the ninth hurdle. That one seemed to disrupt Robles more than Liu.

The second contact, however, caused Liu to break stride heading into the tenth, and final, hurdle. He hit it with his trailing knee, stumbled off it and then lurched toward the finish.

After the race, the Chinese filed a protest, saying Robles ought to be disqualified. The race referee said, you're right, and an appeal jury upheld the referee's decision.

This is how Robles found out about it. He and Liu were in doping control together. Liu said, hey, I just heard on TV that you're out.

Really? Robles said.

"I'm really sorry about the situation," Liu said later at a news conference, adding, "I am good friends with Robles. What I like is a happy competition. I don't know what else to say."

This is how Richardson learned he had been moved up to gold:

He was down under the stadium, talking to a bunch of reporters about winning silver, when Robles stormed through without saying a word. Hey, guess what, the reporters said, Robles has been DQ'd. You're the gold medalist.

For Robles and Cuba, of course, this was a decision fraught with political meaning. Robles was not only going to be stripped of the gold -- he was going to be vanquished, and an American was going to take his place at the top.

For Jason Richardson, there was none of that. It was all about sport and his own dream.

Tears welled up in his eyes.

"Slight perspiration," he said with a laugh as the reporters pressed in even closer.

Jason Richardson was nothing but class.

"My first reaction is that it's disappointing that somebody so great, with such accomplishments, was kind of robbed of the opportunity to really display his athleticism," he said.

"I respect Robles completely. Even when I wasn't running fast, Robles always spoke -- always maintained good rapport -- with me. Under other circumstances, he wouldn't be able to have that medal. What I will say is that I don't know about anybody else's god, but my god is bigger than myself, bigger than this race and, um, I guess I'm the gold medalist."

Later in the evening, at a news conference, he said, "I had to respect the fact that any medal would be a great medal for me. I was completely satisfied with silver," adding a moment later, "Drama or no drama, it is what it is."

He also said, "It has been gratifying to see the hard work I have put in resulting in success," and anyone who knows a John Smith camp knows there is indeed hard work involved.

Richardson said as well, "I have heart. That is bigger and better than anything."

Jeter, for her part, initially appeared stunned to have won -- stunned that the dream she had chased for so long, that had animated all the hard workouts with Smith the taskmaster since she had gotten bronze at the worlds in Berlin in 2009, had finally come true.

"I didn't want to have the same color again," she would say later.

It wasn't, she said, until the camera trained itself on her that she realized, yes, she had done it. The camera finds the winner. That's how she knew -- even before she could find what she was looking for on the scoreboard.

Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica --  the 2007 100 world champion, among many accomplishments -- took second, in 10.97.

Kelly-Ann Baptiste of Trinidad and Tobago got third, in 10.98.

Carmelita Jeter said she ran with no fear. "I ran," she said, "for my life."

Usain Bolt's epic disqualification

DAEGU, South Korea -- Usain Bolt false-started, and Yohan Blake, his Jamaican training partner, won the men's 100-meter world championship title in a race that immediately created a sensational controversy sure to linger to and through the London 2012 Olympic Games. Whether that controversy is good for track and field, a sport that desperately needs stars and on Sunday by rule excused its biggest star from its biggest event -- all that remains to be seen.

"Looking for tears?" Bolt said as he was leaving the stadium. "Not gonna happen. I'm OK."

Blake flew to an easy win in 9.92 seconds just after Bolt false-started. Under a rule that was passed in 2009 and that went into effect in 2010, a regulation that some track and field insiders had warned would inevitably produce a result just like this, one false start now leads to immediate disqualification.

Inevitably came Sunday night in Daegu.

Bolt false-started. He knew it immediately. His face turned into a scream. He ripped his shirt off as a roar of disbelief echoed around the stadium.

He threw his arms up in apparent disgust. His hands over his head, he was led backstage. There he slammed the blue stadium wall.

Justin Gatlin, the American sprinter, had suggested beforehand that the 100 final would be "epic." Turned out he was right -- but what a crazy context.

The show must go on. And, after the shirtless Bolt was led off, it did. But no one in the world thinks Yohan Blake is the world's best sprinter.

Against the six other guys he raced, yes, Yohan Blake was by far the best.

Would he have beaten Usain Bolt?

What, when all is said and done, is the point of a world championships race?

What, when all is said and done, is the point of a rule?

American Walter Dix took second, in 10.08. The first third of the race was the worst, Dix said: "… I kept sitting in the blocks and I couldn't move. That false start was killing us. And hopefully it will change by London. I really didn't think they would kick him out … they have him on every poster."

Kim Collins of St. Kitts and Nevis, the 2003 100 world champion, took third here Sunday, in 10.09. He, too, said the rule ought to be changed: "Not because of [Bolt] but because of what it's doing to the sport."

Then again, it's precisely because of what it was doing to the sport that the rule was changed to one-and-done.

From 2001, track and field worked under a two-strike principle. The first false-start in a particular race was charged to the field. Only if there was a second false-start would that particular athlete be disqualified.

The practical consequence of the two-strike rule was a lot of twitchy gamesmanship.

In 2009, the IAAF, track and field's governing body, had seen enough. It ordered the one-and-done, effective January 2010.

Swimming works on a one-and-done -- and, it must be said, swimmers stay on the blocks.

In the first two days of the 2011 track worlds, though, there have already been three extraordinary false-start disqualifications.

Christine Ohuruogu, the 2007 world champion and 2008 Olympic gold medalist in the 400, was disqualified in Saturday's 400 heats. She sat on the stairs leading to an interview zone for 20 minutes, then said, "I'm broken. You can all see I'm broken. I have nothing else to say. I false-started. I have worked really hard. I came here. I false-started."

Earlier Sunday night, in the semifinals of the men's 100, Dwain Chambers, the world indoor sprint champion, was eliminated when he false-started.

And, now, Bolt.

It must also be said that IAAF officials are appropriately even-handed in their application of the rule. If it can take out Bolt, it can take out anyone.

Now the question: is that a good thing?

Three years ago, at the Olympic Games in Beijing, Bolt ran 9.69, a world record, in the 100.

Two years ago, at the worlds in Berlin, he ran 9.58, a world record staggering in its achievement.

This year, he has been running slower. No one expected a world record. Pretty much everyone, however, expected victory.

Even Bolt, who before the race went through his by-now familiar showman's shtick. He pretended to fly down the lanes like an airplane. He smoothed his hair and scraggly beard to make himself look good for the cameras. When he was introduced, he pointed left and right and shook his head no, as if to say, no way those guys are gonna win, then pointed down the track to suggest it was all him.

He settled into the blocks, crossed himself like he usually does. At that point, Usain Bolt is all business.

This time, though, he jumped the gun.

The biggest event in track and field is the men's 100, and the biggest star is Usain Bolt, and, as Kim Collins said, "The people want to see him -- they want to see him do it," meaning run like he does, and set those records when he can, "and do it again."

One-and-done not only can but, it is surely proven, will take out even Usain Bolt for a twitch. What now, if anything, should track and field do about that?