Thursday 31 March 2005 Olympic 400 metre champion Jeremy Wariner isn't being boastful when confidently predicting very fast times for 2005. On the contrary, Wariner explained, exceptionally fast performances will be nothing short of an absolute necessity just to qualify for the US team for next August's 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Helsinki, Finland.
"It's going to take a very fast time to make it the World Championships," said Wariner, who led teammates Otis Harris and Derrick Brew to a sweep of the Olympic podium last August in Athens. "I think mid to low 44 won't make the team. I think three of us are going to run under 44." The young athletes are hungry Of the ten men who ran 44.72 or faster last year, seven were Americans. In the past month, two new stars - both still teenagers - emerged to add more names to the already deep mix: LaShawn Merritt, and Kerron Clement, who both dipped under the 45 second barrier indoors, with Clement setting a surprise World indoor record of 44.57*. Yet even with Clement, who said last week that he'll focus primarily on his main event, the 400m Hurdles, out of the immediate picture, competition in the full-lap this year in the US will be nothing less than staggering. "The young athletes are starting to step up now," said Wariner, himself barely 21-years-old. "The young athletes are hungry." http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=29005.html
