http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=trackandfield&id=2019132
Reuters Internet Delivery System By Gene Cherry RALEIGH, North Carolina, March 22 - World junior 400 metres hurdles champion Kerron Clement has ruled out running the 400m flat at August's world championships. Clement recently broke Michael Johnson's indoor 400m world record but, speaking during a teleconference from Gainesville in Florida on Tuesday, the 19-year-old said: "I'll just focus on one race (the hurdles)." The Trinidad-born teenager, a student at the University of Florida, lowered Johnson's 10-year-old world indoor record of 44.63 seconds when he clocked 44.57 seconds at the U.S. collegiate championships in Arkansas on March 12. However, he said on Tuesday he would skip the 400m at June's U.S. championships, which serve as the American qualifying trials for the world championships in Helsinki. "The 400 hurdles is Kerron's craft, that is what he does," said University of Florida coach Mike Holloway. "His response always is, 'I like the 400, I love the 400 hurdles'." Clement still hopes U.S. coaches will select him for the 4x400 metres relay at the world championships, however. "That's definitely one of my goals," he said. Clement anchored the U.S. 4x400m relay team to a world junior record of 3:01.09 at the world junior championships in Italy last year. He won the 400m hurdles in a junior championships record of 48.51 seconds. The U.S. collegiate champion in the 400m hurdles, Clement became a U.S. citizen last summer after an outstanding high school career in Texas. He also announced on Tuesday that this would be his last spring as a collegian. He said he planned to turn professional after the U.S. collegiate championships in June. ENDS
