Coleman easily found: In front
US sprinter dominates 100m final to win in 9.76 secs, slams legend Johnson for doping remarks
DOHA: Everyone knew exactly where to find Christian Coleman this time. The sprinter who faced a suspension because he couldn’t be located for drug testing burst out of the blocks Saturday night and powered to the early lead in track’s marquee event.
He got stronger from there, blowing away the seven other entrants in the 100m world-championship title race and leaving little doubt about who will be chased, and who will do the chasing, in a reworked track landscape without the retired Usain Bolt. Coleman’s time, 9.76 seconds, might not have turned many heads, but this should: He beat Justin Gatlin to the line by 0.13 seconds, the biggest blowout in a 100m race at worlds or the Olympics since 2011.
“This is something I’ll never take for granted,” Coleman said. “The opportunity to come out here and compete. And then to be crowned world champion?”
But Coleman’s breakout night had few similarities to any that Bolt dominated over his 10 years of record-setting, reggae-fuelled fun. Even on the races everyone knew he’d win, Bolt brought the entertainment—and some drama—taking forever to unfurl his 6-foot-5 frame from the blocks, then working the first 50m to grab the lead, then leaving everyone hanging at the end to see what that clock might say. Coleman, on the other hand, never trailed— the legs on his muscle-bound, 5-9 frame pumping like pistons from start to finish. The differences on the second evening at the air-conditioned track in Doha weren’t restricted to the men’s 100.
Earlier, Jamaica earned its first gold medal of the championship. Not in its traditional sprints, but in the long jump, courtesy of Tajay Gayle, who won the country’s first world-championship medal in a field event.
The Netherlands, home of speed skating and sprinter Dafne Schippers, took home its first 10,000m gold on the shoes of Ethiopian-born Sifan Hassan, who is making a smooth transition from middle distance to the long races.
And the United States found a surprising, maybe shocking, gold medal in one of the very few spots it hasn’t dominated at some point in track and field’s long history— women’s hammer throw . It came courtesy of a softball playerturned-throwing star named DeAnna Price whose first experience hurling that big piece of metal resulted in her getting bonked in the head. “I remember literally dropping it and saying, ‘I’m never doing this again,’” she said.
Could anyone have blamed Coleman for thinking the same five weeks ago when his name started showing up in the headlines? The leak of information about his troubles with the US Anti-Doping Agency opened up a spigot of allegations and recriminations that followed him to Doha and could stay with him on the road to next year’s Tokyo Olympics. “It’s disturbing to know people out there say things and they don’t know me personally at all,” Coleman said. “But at this point, I’m over it.” His case involved three “whereabouts failures” that occurred between June 6, 2018 and April 26, 2019. Three failures in a 12-month span can trigger an anti-doping violation. But the rules are technical, and there’s a difference between not being where you say you’re going to be and simply failing to update the app that tells authorities where you can be found. Because of those details, Coleman’s first violation was backdated to April 1, 2018—the start of the threemonth period at which the original information is supposed to be inputted. That took his first violation out of the 12-month window and compelled USADA to drop the case. US sprinting legend Michael Johnson led the criticism saying Coleman has already forfeited the right to be the figurehead of track and field. Coleman, however, was unmoved. “Michael Johnson doesn’t pay my bills or sign my cheques,” Coleman said. “So I don’t really care what he has to say.”
Coleman, who has been subject to more than 20 doping tests over the past two years and never been hit with a positive, posted a long YouTube video to explain the situation. He came to Doha thinking that would calm things down. It hasn’t, and at this point— with the 200m qualifying starting Sunday and relays on his plate later next week—he’s done trying. “I’m not spending much time trying to explain things to people who aren’t interested in the truth,” he said. Best, perhaps, to let his running do the talking. “From the start,” he said. “I got up on top of everybody. I knew that if I was being patient, the end would take care of itself.”
Coleman rejected suggestions that he would need to do more to work as an ambassador for athletics. “You’re insinuating that something happened—and at the end of the day I did nothing wrong,” he said. “I’m just a young black man living my dream, and it’s kind of disappointing that someone would leak that information to try and smear my reputation. I just keep doing me and representing the sport the right way. Like I said, I didn’t do anything wrong.”
At the end, Coleman let out a primal scream, then pounded his chest twice and jogged a half-circle around the track, shouting into the stands. He blew a couple of kisses toward the heavens and kneeled for a brief second. On the first big night of track without Bolt, Coleman found himself separated from that group, not running with it.
PULLS OUT OF 200M
Coleman pulled out of the 200m preliminaries saying it was no big deal, and he was just feeling a little sore after a long season.