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PALO ALTO, Calif. - "I thought I had him at the line. I really thought I
had it," said James Carter, frustration written on his face.
But the photo-timing apparatus at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships yesterday didn't lie.
Baltimore's Carter didn't catch his man at all. Northern Iowa graduate Joey Woody, an old rival, fought him off for third place with a desperate effort in the final strides of the men's 400-meter hurdles at Stanford University.
All of one hundredth of a second - 49.22 to 49.23 - in a race won by Eric Thomas (48.76) over Bershawn Jackson (49.01) separated Woody from Carter.
But it was a huge hundredth, because only the first three qualified for the U.S. team bound for the world championships in Paris, Aug. 22-31.
So, barring further developments - and a lot can happen by late August - Bernard Williams, winner of the national 100-meter title in an upset of world-record holder Tim Montgomery on Friday night, will be Baltimore's representative on the U.S. team in Paris.
Williams, the former Carver and University of Florida standout, will run the 100 and the 400 relay in the worlds - but not the 200 as he was expecting to just a day earlier.
After the first round of the 200 Saturday, Williams exuded optimism about the semifinals and final, saying he hoped to break 20 seconds for the first time.
All that, however, apparently vanished overnight. Yesterday morning, Williams scratched from the 200 semifinals, opting to focus on the shorter distance at the worlds.
"He told me his body was hurting, and that should be enough," said Maurice Greene, the reigning Olympic 100 champion and former world-record holder.
Greene himself scratched from the 200 final to focus on the 100 in Paris. Darvis Patton (20.15), John Capel (20.17) and Joshua Johnson (20.22) ran 1-2-3 in the 200.
A nagging hamstring and back-of-the-knee injury apparently hampered Carter, the ex-Mervo and Hampton University athlete and 2000 Olympic fourth-place finisher, in his defense of the national title he won at Stanford in 2002.
"It tightened up in the beginning [of the race], and my steps were a little off; I was reaching for the first couple of hurdles," he said.
By the middle of the race, though, Carter was back in the battle. "It must have been an adrenaline rush, I guess," he said.
Only when the results flashed on the giant scoreboard did Carter acknowledge that he had just missed.
"I came in here hurt," Carter said. "I missed a month of practice. I'm not disappointed, but I'm not satisfied, either. Forty-nine [seconds] or whatever it was today, that's not me. It's not what I've been in the past. It's not what I'm about.
"I may just end my season right here [skipping the lucrative European circuit]. I may cancel out on everything, go home and make sure everything's OK for next year. It's an Olympic year. I plan to be there again."
In the concluding event of the four-day meet, Tom Pappas of Knoxville, Tenn., registered 8,784 points in the decathlon, the second-best score in U.S. history and second-best in the world this year.
In other competition here, Gail Devers took her ninth women's 100 hurdles title (12.61) after running third in the 100 final Friday, and ex-Tennessee standout Kelli White added the women's 200 title (22.21) to her 100 crown as Los Angeles high school sensation Allyson Felix ran third.
David Krummenacker, the world indoor champion, won the men's 800 in 1:45.53. Stanford alumnus Jason Lunn took the slow-paced men's 1,500 final in 3:44.00 as high school record-holder Alan Webb wound up 10th, and Kenta Bell (57 feet, 8 1/2 inches) fought off Walter Davis (57-7) in a lively men's triple-jump duel.
But the photo-timing apparatus at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships yesterday didn't lie.
Baltimore's Carter didn't catch his man at all. Northern Iowa graduate Joey Woody, an old rival, fought him off for third place with a desperate effort in the final strides of the men's 400-meter hurdles at Stanford University.
All of one hundredth of a second - 49.22 to 49.23 - in a race won by Eric Thomas (48.76) over Bershawn Jackson (49.01) separated Woody from Carter.
But it was a huge hundredth, because only the first three qualified for the U.S. team bound for the world championships in Paris, Aug. 22-31.
So, barring further developments - and a lot can happen by late August - Bernard Williams, winner of the national 100-meter title in an upset of world-record holder Tim Montgomery on Friday night, will be Baltimore's representative on the U.S. team in Paris.
Williams, the former Carver and University of Florida standout, will run the 100 and the 400 relay in the worlds - but not the 200 as he was expecting to just a day earlier.
After the first round of the 200 Saturday, Williams exuded optimism about the semifinals and final, saying he hoped to break 20 seconds for the first time.
All that, however, apparently vanished overnight. Yesterday morning, Williams scratched from the 200 semifinals, opting to focus on the shorter distance at the worlds.
"He told me his body was hurting, and that should be enough," said Maurice Greene, the reigning Olympic 100 champion and former world-record holder.
Greene himself scratched from the 200 final to focus on the 100 in Paris. Darvis Patton (20.15), John Capel (20.17) and Joshua Johnson (20.22) ran 1-2-3 in the 200.
A nagging hamstring and back-of-the-knee injury apparently hampered Carter, the ex-Mervo and Hampton University athlete and 2000 Olympic fourth-place finisher, in his defense of the national title he won at Stanford in 2002.
"It tightened up in the beginning [of the race], and my steps were a little off; I was reaching for the first couple of hurdles," he said.
By the middle of the race, though, Carter was back in the battle. "It must have been an adrenaline rush, I guess," he said.
Only when the results flashed on the giant scoreboard did Carter acknowledge that he had just missed.
"I came in here hurt," Carter said. "I missed a month of practice. I'm not disappointed, but I'm not satisfied, either. Forty-nine [seconds] or whatever it was today, that's not me. It's not what I've been in the past. It's not what I'm about.
"I may just end my season right here [skipping the lucrative European circuit]. I may cancel out on everything, go home and make sure everything's OK for next year. It's an Olympic year. I plan to be there again."
In the concluding event of the four-day meet, Tom Pappas of Knoxville, Tenn., registered 8,784 points in the decathlon, the second-best score in U.S. history and second-best in the world this year.
In other competition here, Gail Devers took her ninth women's 100 hurdles title (12.61) after running third in the 100 final Friday, and ex-Tennessee standout Kelli White added the women's 200 title (22.21) to her 100 crown as Los Angeles high school sensation Allyson Felix ran third.
David Krummenacker, the world indoor champion, won the men's 800 in 1:45.53. Stanford alumnus Jason Lunn took the slow-paced men's 1,500 final in 3:44.00 as high school record-holder Alan Webb wound up 10th, and Kenta Bell (57 feet, 8 1/2 inches) fought off Walter Davis (57-7) in a lively men's triple-jump duel.
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