Old Hands, new faces gear up for 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials

Allen Johnson and Gail Devers were two of the brightest stars at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials in Sacramento. Judging from their performances at this past weekend's World Indoor Championships, neither hurdler has lost a step in the four years since.

Johnson won his third world indoor title in the 60-meter hurdles in Budapest, Hungary, tying the American record of 7.36 seconds. The ageless Devers won the 60-meter dash and finished a close second in the hurdles. With an outstanding indoor season behind her, Devers has her sights set on qualifying for a fifth Olympic team this summer.

The 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials will be held July 9-18 at Hornet Stadium on the Sacramento State campus. The eight-day competition determines the makeup of the U.S. track and field team for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

Two of the other U.S. standouts in Budapest - shot putter Christian Cantwell and decathlete Bryan Clay - are newcomers to the world elite. Their emergence indicates the 2004 Olympic Trials will feature a welcome mix of new faces and old hands.

Cantwell, 23, won the world indoor title with a throw of 70 feet, 6.25 inches. Earlier this winter, Cantwell threw a world-leading 72-0.25. The 24-year-old Clay placed an impressive second in Budapest's highly competitive heptathlon field.

While Devers and Johnson were battle-tested Olympians at the 2000 Olympic Trials, Cantwell and Clay were complete unknowns four years ago.

Cantwell qualified for the 200 Trials but had three fouls in qualifying and didn't make the final. "I finished dead last the last time I was here," he recalled three years later, when as a Missouri senior he returned to Sacramento for the 2003 NCAA Division I Championships. He threw a personal-best 70-9 at NCAAs to place second. When Cantwell returns to Sacramento in July, he'll be a legitimate Olympic gold-medal contender.

"I'm going to take this momentum and keep going," Cantwell said Budapest.

Clay didn't even qualify for the 2000 Olympic Trials. His best decathlon score that year was 7,391 points. By 2003, the Hawaii native had improved all the way to 8,482, placing second in the U.S. championships. In Budapest, Clay led Roman Sebrle through six events of the heptathlon before the Czech great passed him in the seventh and final event, the 1,000-meter run.

Clay's score of 6,365 points made him the eight-best performaner in history. He registered personal bests in five of the seven events. Estonia's Erki Nool, the defending Olympic champion, finished fifth. Clay also finished in front of Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Karpov and Russia's Lev Lobodin.

"I knew I could do these performances, but I didn't expect them this early (in the year)," Clay said.

Sebrle, the world record holder in the decathlon with 9,026 points, now envisions having more than one American challenger in Athens. Tom Pappas, the reigning U.S. and world decathlon champion, skipped this year's world indoor meet.

"I think what Bryan has done here will be very good for the decathlon," Sebrle said. "I think I must pay attention to him for the Olympics. It's not just Tom Pappas anymore. It's Bryan, too."

Many top-tier athletes skipped the world indoor meet, preferring to concentrate on the upcoming outdoor season. But Johnson and Devers felt like getting an early jump on the Olympic year.

Johnson turned back a strong hurdles field in Budapest. His winning time equaled the U.S. record of 7.36 set by Greg Foster in 1987. The world indoor record is 7.30, set by Great Britain's Colin Jackson in 1994. Johnson's previous indoor best (from 1995) was 7.38.

At the 2000 Olympic Trials in Sacramento, Johnson won the 110-meter high hurdles in 12.97, close to his American record of 12.92. (Britain's Jackson holds the world record of 12.91.) In addition to winning an Olympic gold medal in 1996, the 33-year-old Johnson has collected three indoor and four outdoor world titles during one of the hurdling's greatest careers.

Devers, meanwhile, won the event few expected her to win in Budapest - the 60-meter dash - and lost the event she figured to win - the 60-meter hurdles. In the hurdles final, Devers was a close second to the 2003 world outdoor champion, Perdita Felicien of Canada.

"I wasn't pleased with my start, and I didn't come off the last hurdle well," Devers said. "I feel fine. I did something no one thought I could do, and that's come back and win the 60 again. I think my hurdle technique suffered as a result."

Devers (1992-96) and Wyomia Tyus (1964-68) are the only women to win successive Olympic titles in the 100-meter dash. The only major title to elude Devers in her fabulous career is an Olympic championship in the hurdles.

At the 1988 Olympics, Devers failed to qualify for the final. In 1992, she tripped over the final hurdle while leading and crawled across the finish line in fifth place. In 1996, she just missed a medal, finishing fourth. And in 2000, after setting a U.S. record of 12.33 at the Olympic Trials in Sacramento, she suffered a hamstring injury in her Olympic semifinal.

This year, it looks as if the 37-year-old Devers is going to get another shot at the elusive title, much to delight of Sue Humphrey, the U.S. Olympic women's coach.

"Gail's like the Energizer bunny," Humphrey said. "She's amazing. She just keeps on going."

Stacy Dragila finished second in the women's pole vault in Budapest. Dragila raised her American indoor record to 15-9.25, but Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva went one height higher, setting a world record of 15-11.25.

"It was a good day," Dragila said. "It's a confidence builder and a great way to end the indoor season. I'll be contending outdoors."

Trials notes: Dragila set a world record of 15-2.25 in winning the 2000 Olympic Trials. Fifty-five world records have been set at the U.S. Trials since 1924 ... Savante Stringfellow came from behind to win the men's long jump at the world indoor meet in Budapest, leaping 27-6.75 ... Eight-day ticket packages are available for the 2004 Olympic Trials. Call (916) 566-6560. Four-day tickets go on sale April 1.