FRANKIE FREDERICKS of Namibia gained revenge over dual Olympic champion Michael Johnson last night, beating the American in the 200 metres at the IAAF Grand Prix meet in Berlin - the last in the series of Golden meetings.
Fredericks, second behind Johnson over the distance in Atlanta, clocked 19.97 seconds to Johnson's 20.02 to assure himself of a share of 20 kilogram bars of gold promised to athletes who won specified events at all four Golden meetings - Oslo, Zurich, Brussels and Berlin.
Before the Olympics, in Oslo in early July, Fredericks handed Johnson his first defeat in any race for two years.
Johnson, who smashed the 200 metres world record with an amazing time of 19.32 seconds in Atlanta, missed the Zurich meeting earlier this month because of injury but cruised to an easy victory over 400 metres in Brussels last week.
He had no answer to Fredericks over the shorter distance, however. "Iran fast and was concentrated. It isn't fun to be beaten by Michael every time," said Fredericks. "Atlanta is now in the past and I am curious what the future is going to bring."
Johnson said he was not despondent about the rare defeat. "One cannot always win," he said. "Today, I hand the victory to Frankie."
Fredericks had to share the gold bullion with four other quadruple victors.
Olympic champion Lars Riedel of Germany and Wilson Kipketer of Denmark, who missed the 800 metres at the Olympics because of eligibility problems, secured a share of the gold along with British triple jumper Jonathan Edwards and Bulgarian high jumper Stefka Kostadinova.
