Bailey's glory as Johnson pulls up

BRAVO Donovan Bailey. Fastest man in the world until the rematch gets fixed up. The Toronto Skydome was half empty. The organisation was abysmal. The tension between the athletes crackled with electricity. Donovan Bailey ran 150 metres in a fraction under 15 seconds and thus put an end (however briefly) to the 10 month old argument over who can claim to be the fastest man in the world.

The Skydome erupted in a chaos of partisan cheering and cheap fireworks but the outcome was robbed of some of its decisiveness by Michael Johnson's having pulled up with 50 metres remaining in the race. Bailey finished the race on his own.

"I pulled my quadrocept," said a sulky Johnson afterwards. He said he felt the injury as he was coming around the 75metre curve. "I felt the cramp grab, then it let go," he said. "I kept going, but I felt it again and it was much worse.

Bailey told Canadian television what he thought of Johnson: "He's just a chicken."

Then at a press conference, Bailey said: "I don't regret the chicken comment at the end of the race. Michael and I don't have a lot of words to say. Michael knew he was going to get hammered after 30 metres.

He added: "Two things were going to happen. I was going to beat him badly or he was going to fake an injury. All I know is I looked around and he was gone.

"That tells you a lot about the kind of person he is," glowered Johnson "and I'll tell you a lot about the kind of person I am. I'm not going to address that."

Johnson's injury notwithstanding it was Bailey who had started more convincingly (his reaction time in the Olympic 100 metre final last year had been the slowest of the eight runners) and Bailey had recovered the two metre stagger allowed to Johnson because of the radius of the bend after just 20 metres.

Running on the inside lane of the twolane track Bailey had a clear lead of more than two metres on Johnson when the Texan pulled up with an apparent calf injury just after the 100 metre mark. Johnson claimed that he had felt pain in his thigh early in the first curve. Asked later if his injury was genuine, Johnson refused to elaborate telling the questioner that "he had just shown a lot about himself."

Victory marked a sweet moment for Bailey, the likeable Jamaican Canadian. For his part in settling a media argument which arose out of the two runners world record runs in Atlanta, Bailey pocketed some $1.5 million, making him one of the most richly rewarded (whatever about quickest) athletes of all time.

With Johnson having declared his intention to run just the 400 metres at the world championship in Athens later this summer Bailey refused to rule out a crack at both the 100 and 200 metre crowns. His sub 15 second run yesterday compared well in split times to all but Johnson's astonishing 19.32 world record over 200 metres in Atlanta last summer.

"If he trains for it he could do it," said Bailey's coach Dan Pfaff.

"Oh man. More training," laughed Bailey.

It has its rewards, though. For his part in the 15 seconds of mayhem and power Bailey walks away with one of the biggest paydays of his career, netting the $1m winner's prize as well as the $.5m appearance fee. For a brief period yesterday the Jamaican Canadian was making $100,000 a second. For that a runner could forgive much and in the inept organisation of this event there was much to forgive.

During the buildup to the race tension and animosity between the two runners had developed to such a degree that Johnson was openly accusing Bailey of deliberately downplaying the event because he knew he had more to lose.

As well as the voluble animosity between its two main participants, redolent of the tedious pantomime which precedes boxing match ups, the race was plagued by doubts as to it's viability until hours before the starter's gun sounded in the Toronto Skydome yesterday evening.

As of late on Saturday night, acting under advice from his coach Don Pfaff, Bailey was actually pulling out of the event in protest at the organisers failure to comply to agreed specifications for the curved two lane track laid out on the concrete floor of the venue.

The original agreement between athletes and organisers was for a track configured to replicate lanes seven and eight of a standard track. Yesterday's race took place over a curve on the same radius as lanes three and four of a standard track. The organisers configured the track leaving Bailey with 75 metres of bend to run. When you are guaranteed just $500,0000 for 15 seconds work such things can niggle.

If we were to ever air all the things that happened, I think people would realise," said Bailey. "Believe me, I've swallowed a lot of things and I've taken a lot by coming up and doing this. I'd never do it again here with the people who were supposed to organise it . . . I am drained big time because of everything that's happened over the past three months."

Sitting on the press conference rostrum alter his victory, Bailey was inclined not to dwell on events in the lead up to the race. When you have knocked down $1.5 million for 15 seconds work these things can seem a little more trivial.

"I got no sleep on Saturday night worrying about this," he said, "but it's over. I was always confident of my ability to run and train every day. I came ready to run fast. I am satisfied."

"Who is the fastest man in the world?" both runners were asked at their separate press conferences afterwards.

"The race was never going to prove that one way or another," said Bailey. "I proved it in Atlanta."

"You can give that title to him if you want," said Johnson, fitting uncomfortably into the role of loser. "I hope you are all proud of yourselves."

While Bailey stole the Skydome thunder, there was a supporting cast. In the sideshow events, Heike Drechsler of Germany beat Jackie Joyner Kersee (USA) in the long jump, Tony Voltenpest (USA) beat Neil Fuller (Australia) in the paralympic too metre sprint, Charles Austin of the USA beat Patrik Sjoberg (Sweden) in the high jump.

Ludmile Engquist (Sweden) beat Michelle Freeman (Jamaica) over the 100 metre hurdles and Ockert Brits of South Africa beat Lawrence Johnson of the USA in the pole vault.

Joyner Kersee said the one on one event format is a good way to try to revive interest in the sport of athletics even though it's tough on the competitors.

"The one on one will add another dimension to track and field," said JoynerKersee. "But it's tough to jump back to back. It really tested our endurance."

No world records were broken. The organisers had offered $1m in the event of such an occurrence. They looked relieved afterwards.

So did everyone of the 35.000 who had glimpsed the much ballyhooed and quite chaotic future of track and field.