>From http://www.athletics-online.co.uk/110509pettigrew.htm:
Antonio Pettigrew believes Michael Johnson should have received a guaranteed
place on the world championship 4x400m relay squad without having to run at
the trials.
Johnson, who has won the last four individual world 400m titles, intends to
compete only in relays during his retirement season and had hoped to anchor
the United States to victory in Edmonton.
However, USATF decided last weekend to uphold a recent rule change, which
says that defending world champions with a bye must still compete at the
trials to gain selection.
Pettigrew, the last man other than Johnson to win the world 400m title,
believes the five-time Olympic champion should have been given a waiver.
"Michael Johnson's been in this sport for a long time," said the 1991 world
champion. "He's helped promote track and field, he's done everything for
our sport in a good way.
"It's sad to not see him at the world championships running a 4x400 for the
last time.
"That's just my opinion - that he should be able to run in the relay."
The 33-year-old feels Johnson, the holder of the world records at 200m, 400m
and the 4x400m relay, has done enough for the sport in his country.
"Let him run the world championships for one last time in the 4x400," he
pleaded. "He's competed, he's run well, he's done everything he needs to do
in our sport."
Individual defending champions receive a bye to compete in their events in
the world championships - an idea the IAAF ironically thought up in 1997
after Johnson himself had to miss the U.S. trials through injury.
But earlier this year, USATF introduced a ruling to force world champions to
compete at the trials. The IAAF also adapted its rules so that such
automatic qualifiers would have to be entered by their respective national
federations.
"Under current rules you need to participate at the U.S. national
championships in order to be selected for a relay championships," a
spokeswoman for USATF said last week.
She added: "In order for a person with a bye to be entered in the world
championships, you need to either compete in some events - it doesn't matter
which - at the national championships or have a doctor's notice for injury
or if you get a waiver on other grounds."
The USATF Board of Directors has since confirmed after a teleconference that
this ruling would be applied to relays.
A spokesman said on Wednesday that a turnaround on the issue was not likely
to take place.
Johnson, who is set to end his career at a meet in Japan in September, has
accepted the decision without complaint.
Even if the 33-year-old Texan has competed in his last world championships
relay, the Goodwill Games later in August may yet see him anchoring an
American squad to another world record.
The suggestion was met by a confident response from Pettigrew at a press
teleconference on Tuesday.
United States' most reliable second-leg runner, who hopes to be on the team,
believes the 2:54.20 set in 1998 could be under threat.
"It would be nice to have one last hoorah of going to Brisbane, Australia
and smashing the world record in the 4x400," said Pettigrew, who ran a
43.2-second split when he teamed up with Jerome Young, Tyree Washington and
Johnson for the existing record. "I would love to."
"I haven't talked to the other guys really about it, but I think it's
something that can be accomplished," he added.
Pettigrew, who is 51 days Johnson's junior, intends to follow a similar
route into retirement next year to the one that the Olympic champion is
taking this season.
After at the end of last year considering retirement and even moving up to
800 metres, he is planning an easy farewell season in 2002 to fulfil his
sponsorship contract with adidas.
"Right now, I would like to say goodbye this year, but it looks like I'm not
going to be able to," he said.
"If I do run (next year), I'll run relays and a couple of quarters (400m),"
he said. "I'll pick certain meets to run at for the simple reason I want to
be able to say thank you for all my years."
In the meantime, with no Johnson in the field in Edmonton, it would be
unwise to discount him from regaining the world title he won ten years ago.
Such is not impossible for a man who in 1997 ran his first personal best for
eight years and also ended Johnson's 58-race winning streak in the one-lap
event.
A quick time in this Saturday's Princeton Invitational would confirm he
could win what he categorically describes as his last world championships.
"I hope to run at least 44.6 or 44.5," he declared.
He may have to in order to beat a field which includes twice world
championship finallist, Jerome Young, Olympic 400m hurdles champion and
sub-45 lapper, Angelo Taylor, and Jamaica's Michael McDonald, who clocked
44.71 last Sunday.
Though delighted to have won his first Olympic title in Sydney participating
in the 4x400m, he knows the gold medal will count for nothing this year.
"It's a great feeling," he said of how it feels to finally be an Olympic
champion. "But you have to be able to see last year in the past."
He added: "I realise that 2000's gone and 2001 is here and you can't live in
the past. You got to live in the future."
