Warren Gatlin sets up Beijing clashes with Usain Bolt after 200m success
Monday 29 June 2015 06:37, UK
Controversial US sprinter Justin Gatlin clocked a world-leading 19.57 seconds to win the US Athletics Championships' 200m on Sunday, to line up a double World Championship challenge in Beijing.
Gatlin came off the turn in front and powered home in a career best, surpassing the 19.68 he set on the same Hayward Field track during the Eugene Diamond League meeting in May.
The time means he is now the fifth-fastest man in the history of the event, bettered only by Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake, Michael Johnson and Walter Dix.
"I know I had a great start, attacked coming off the turn and ran a great 150," he said.
With his bye into Beijing's 100m in August as the result of his status as the reigning Diamond League champion, the 33-year-old American, who completed a four-year drugs ban in 2010 after failing two drugs tests, is now poised to challenge Jamaican sprint superstar Bolt in both events in China.
Gatlin has not lost over 100m since 2013, winning 20 successive races.
In a race run in a legal wind in Oregon, Gatlin's training partner Isiah Young was second in 19.93, with veteran Wallace Spearmon third in 20.10.
He would next love to challenge Johnson's American record of 19.32 seconds, although admitting it will be tough for him to find another two-tenths of a second.
"Growing up, to even speak of a 19.3 - that's Michael Johnson," Gatlin said. "You can't even say the words that you look up to that, or look up to him - 19.3 was something unfathomable.
"I'm going to go out there and give 100 percent effort every time I have an opportunity to do so. If 19.3 is in the scope then I'll go for that."
