Young, Gatlin turn in top 1st-round 100 times

Des Moines, Iowa — The finger point near the finish line between Justin Gatlin and training partner Isiah Young? Scripted.

Whether Gatlin competes anymore at the U.S. championships? Unscripted.

Gatlin remains on the fence on whether he will compete beyond his opening 100-meter run Thursday night. He has an automatic bye to the world championships this fall in Doha as the defending 100 champion and can theoretically shut it down. He just needed to take one trip down the track at nationals.

It was far from a leisurely stroll. The 37-year-old Gatlin had the second-fastest time at 10.16 seconds, beaten only by Young (10.14). Running in the same first-round heat, Gatlin pointed at Young and Young pointed right back at him.

“We went in with a strategy,” Gatlin said. “We wanted to go out there and just run all the way through 70, 80 (meters) and be able to look over at each other and basically say good job to each other.”

Now, Gatlin’s heading back to study his performance. That coupled with how his body feels will determine if he runs anymore.

“If there’s something I can work on, and it will be a positive step in the right direction for my race pattern, I’ll come back,” Gatlin said.

The 100 semifinal and final rounds are set for today, with three spots to worlds up for grabs. Other winners of their 100 heats included Michael Rodgers (10.24), Ronnie Baker (10.26) and Christian Coleman (10.29).

In the women’s 100, Dezerea Bryant had the top time in the first round at 11.25 seconds, with English Gardner second at 11.28.

There was a touching moment before the first round of the women’s 1,500 race to honor the late Gabriele “Gabe” Grunewald, who died last month of cancer at 32. Flowers were placed in lane one and a video tribute played on the big screen at Drake Stadium. “Brave Like Gabe” stickers were handed out.

Grunewald ran the 1,500 meters at nationals in between rounds of cancer treatment in 2017.