BATTLE OF THE 'CENTURY'
T&T sprinters enter Beijing action
Kwame Laurence
Thursday, August 14th 2008
Richard Thompson will "open the batting" for the Trinidad and Tobago track and field team at the 2008 Olympic Games, here in Beijing, China, tonight (TT time). The 23-year-old sprinter faces the starter at 10.01 p.m., in the third of ten men's 100 metres first round heats. He will run in lane eight.
Thompson, who clocked a personal best 9.93 seconds in May, should have little difficulty advancing to the quarters, which take place from 7.45 tomorrow morning (TT time). The top three in each heat qualify automatically.
Frenchman Martial Mbandjock, Barbadian Andrew Hinds, experienced Ghanaian Aziz Zakari and Italy's Simone Collio will also run in heat three.
Shortly after Thompson makes his Olympic debut, his T&T teammate Darrel Brown will compete for the first time in an individual event at the quadrennial Games. The 2003 World Championship silver medallist has been drawn in lane six in the fourth heat. Brown's chief rival in that race is likely to be his Jamaican training partner Michael Frater.
The third T&T athlete competing in the century is Marc Burns. Four years ago, at the Athens Olympics, the US-based sprinter was disqualified in the opening round for a false start. He's hoping for a change in fortunes here in Beijing, and begins his quest for Olympic glory in lane five in the ninth heat.
Burns has been in fine form this season, and in his final pre-Olympic 100m outing, at the Aviva London Grand Prix late last month, clocked a fast 9.97 seconds to finish second to former world record holder Asafa Powell (9.94) of Jamaica.
But though he has been regularly in winners' row this year, Burns has struggled with his start.
"Yes, it's a problem, but then again I'm not trying to focus on it too much. My coach (Henry Rolle) and I dealt with it, we did some ironing out, so I think I'm ready to compete."
Jamaican world record holder Usain Bolt (9.72), Powell and reigning world double sprint champion Tyson Gay are expected to feature in a three-way battle for the Olympic century title. Brown, Burns and Thompson, however, are all keen to upstage the "Big Three".
The biggest of the three, six-foot-five inch Bolt will see action first at the Bird's Nest stadium. He will run in heat one, while Powell faces the starter in the second heat and Gay in the fifth.
