© Stade de France ®
Macary, Zublena et Regembal
Costantini - Architects
ADAGP - Paris - 2002
|
|
COMPETITION  RETRO |
 Seville 1999: JOHNSON'S CROWNING GLORY
Paris 2003 Saint-Denis
One of the greatest athletes of all time, Michael Johnson took his total of world titles to nine with a 400m / 4x400m double in Spain. Above all though, he added the final jewel to his crown by breaking the 400m world record, three years after setting a new world best for the 200m in Atlanta. After Seville, Johnson simply had nothing left to prove. He’d done it all.
All the superlatives have been used to describe Michael Johnson, one of the finest runners in history and the undisputed all-time great at the one-lap distance. He won five Olympic titles (two in the 4x400m) and nine World Championship golds in his time, setting world records at the 200 and 400m in the process. Johnson had been chasing the latter for nigh on a decade, and when he finally smashed it at the 7th World Championships in Seville he could finally hang up his spikes and look back on the perfect career. Not before he picked up his last Olympic gold in Sydney though…..
Nine world titles
The Texan was in a World Championship league of his own throughout the 1990s. He began by grabbing 200m gold in Tokyo in 1991, before moving up to the 400m in Stuttgart in 1993 and winning the next four world titles at the distance. He even won an unprecedented triple gold in Gothenburg in 1995 (200, 400 and 4x400m). It was entirely fitting, then, that in his final appearance on the World Championship stage he should break Harry Butch Reynolds’ 400m record of 43.29 which had stood since 1988.
A record that became an obsession
Such was Johnson’s dominance over the one-lap distance (he went unbeaten between 1989 and 1997), he naturally set his sights on the world record. Yet try as he might he always came up just short – even in Atlanta, at the height of his powers, when he set a new 200m world record. By 1999, there were those who even dared to suggest the great man may never better the mark, and an injury that prevented him from appearing in the US trials hardly gave him the best preparation for Seville.
The perfect race
‘The Duck’ (as he was known due to his inimitable running style) was drawn in lane n°5, and went out at a steady pace over the first 200m (21.22). Then, in the second half of the race, as his rivals tired, Johnson just kept on at the same speed. His second 200 was nearly as fast as his first (21.96), and at last the world record had gone. The American threw his arms into the air when he saw the time – 43.18 - and set off for the traditional lap of honour and the acclaim of a crowd of 45,000 ecstatic fans. Parella from Brazil (44.29) and the Mexican Cardena (44.31) trailed in way behind – way back, on another planet. « Getting to 300, he was very relaxed,» remembered coach Clyde Hart. Patience was very important. He showed that 31.6 was like a walk in the park».
|
|
|
|
