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Friday 43 Sports Friday, July 5, 2019 Sprints are like gunfight at OK Corral, says Gatlin LAUSANNE: A lack of a clear favorite allied like a wave of talent came in the door... you have with a host of younger, blossoming athletes in such dominance in the 100, 200 and 400m. “You the post-Usain Bolt era have made sprinting like see a lot of young sprinters coming along and it’s a gunfight at the OK Corral, according to Amer- a rarity to see young sprinters who are confident ican veteran Justin Gatlin. The controversial in themselves and in their abilities at such an Gatlin, 37, is aiming for one last hurrah at the early stage of their career. “I’m excited to go to World Athletics Championships in Doha come trials and see these guys do their thing, and I’m September and will go there as reigning 100m excited to be in the mix as well.” world champion, having beaten Christian Cole- man and Bolt to gold in the blue riband event at Rebirth of rivalries the 2017 London worlds. Gatlin will run the 100m in Lausanne, while Coleman is part of a group of young US 21-year-old Lyles competes in his favored 200m, sprinters including Michael Norman and Noah as he will do at the US trials in Des Moines, Iowa, Lyles who are threatening to dominate in the on July 25-28. “I like how now every race is now years to come. “I like where the sprints are right ‘who’s going to win?’ There are a lot of rivalries now,” said Gatlin, who won 100m gold at the coming up, especially in the United States,” said 2004 Olympics but went on to serve a four-year Lyles. “I’ve been waiting for this year since ban for doping before rebounding with silver at 2017,” he said after admitting to spending years the 2016 Rio Games, among other accolades. watching Gatlin, Bolt and Tyson Gay dominate “It’s like a gunshow at the OK Corral, you’ve got sprinting. a lot of very talented athletes who are going to “Now it feels like this is my generation and step up and that’s what makes people get into it’s time where we get to step up and go to the the seats to see who’s going to be the winner. world championships.” Lyles added: “There’s no STANFORD: Christian Coleman (center) of the United States beats (from left) Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain, “It’s not always a clear favorite so you always pressure, I really don’t have anything to lose Michael Rodgers of the United States, Justin Gatlin of the United States and Cravon Gillespie of the United have to be on top of your game and I like that a since I haven’t made a team before. It’s about me States to win the men’s 100m during the Prefontaine Classic at Cobb Track & Angell Field. —AFP lot.” going out there and giving my all. “I’m amped up, Such is the US strength in depth in sprints, more excited than anything to get out there and the national trials for a spot on the team for Doha try to prove to people that I can be the best.” this season, this season is already an unortho- run fast every time you step on the track, break promise to be absolutely top notch. “I’ve been Gatlin played down his age going into the Sep- dox season — we’ve never really explored run- records every time you step on the track, but around for a while,” said Gatlin ahead of Friday’s tember 28-October 6 worlds in Doha. ning in October,” he said. “It’s more or less knowing you have an extra two months to go Diamond League meet in Lausanne. “But now it’s “It’s not necessarily about my age going into about being more consistent and being patient it’s almost like a game of chess rather than che- at the same time.”As competitors you want to quers now.” —AFP tions and to confirm that the USOC was fall on stage one. The 2019 route will play to the pure climber’s Disgraced former taking all appropriate steps to respond to Six riders to strengths due to reduced time-trialling, and crucially, seven the allegations and ensure athlete safety.” ascents above 2,000 metres, three of them summit finishes However, investigators later concluded on what might be his last real roll of the dice. Now 29 and in US Olympic chief watch at the his seventh season at Movistar he races as co-leader with “no such conversations were had, and no some heavyweight back-up in another potential winner, such steps were taken.” Mikel Landa, and wily world champion Alejandro Valverde. gets $2.4m payoff His multi-million-dollar severance pay- Tour de France ment was revealed in a financial report Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) LOS ANGELES: The former chief execu- made public on Wednesday. USOPC BRUSSELS: The 2019 Tour de France embarks from The Danish veteran won the key classic Liege-Bas- tive of the United States Olympic Com- chairman Susanne Lyons said the payoff Brussels tomorrow with a mountain-packed course and togne-Liege in April, saying that in the closing kilometres mittee who was severely criticized for his was necessary to facilitate “new leader- a more open field than in recent editions. AFP Sport takes he took the decision to win or die, having come second handling of the Larry Nassar abuse scan- ship to guide the organization forward, as a brief look at six of the main contenders hoping to pull or third so many times. With his wife watching from the dal received $2.4 million in severance pay, on the winner’s yellow jersey at the iconic Champs-Ely- sidelines Fuglsang credited her with support and said he well as Blackmun’s serious health chal- sees finish line in Paris on July 28: official records revealed on Wednesday. lenges.” Blackmun left his post after being had finally grown into a winner at 34. The Astana captain Scott Blackmun stepped down as chief of then went to the Criterium de Dauphine one-week Tour diagnosed with prostate cancer in Janu- Geraint Thomas (Ineos) USOC in February last year, roughly one warm up and won it, and can count on a powerful climb ary 2018. Attorney John Manly, who rep- The 33-year-old defending champion, who arrived at posse to protect him in France. month after former national gymnastics resented many of Nassar’s abused the race in peak condition in 2018, left his preparations a team doctor Nassar was jailed for life for patients, slammed the payout. little tight. He then suffered a setback with a fright on the Rigoberto Uran (Education First) abusing more than 250 athletes, including “Blackmun knew Larry Nassar was a Tour de Suisse when he fell heavily and took a knock to the The feisty climber came second in the 2017 Tour. He several stars of the USA’s 2012 and 2016 child molester in summer 2015,” Manly head. Having Ineos teammate Egan Bernal alongside him was the leader of a powerful Colombian team at the 2018 gold medal-winning Olympic teams. wrote on Twitter. “He concealed that fact may actually play into his hands by causing a smokescreen world championships ahead of Nairo Quintana and A subsequent independent report from the public, the media, police & worst to rivals. A great time-trialist, the Welshman has proved he Miguel Angel Lopez, although all of them faded on the can fight in the mountains thanks to his strong team. commissioned by the USOC, which is of all the athletes & their parents. “In- so called ‘Hell Hill’ at Innsbruck. He fell in March’s Paris- now known as the United States Olympic stead of going to jail he’s been rewarded Nice but declared last week: “My season begins now”. and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), was Egan Bernal (Ineos) The newly recruited American rider Tejay Van Garderen w/2.4 mill. by USOC leaders. Enough!!” On paper Bernal has all the ingredients to steal the leads a handy back-up crew for Uran. scathing of Blackmun’s role in the scan- Some of the biggest names in US gym- show on the Tour on only his second appearance. Not dal. The report by outside investigators nastics were abused by Nassar, including only a gifted climber but also a solid all-rounder with a Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) alleged Blackmun and other Olympic Simone Biles and fellow gold medalists knack of closing out victories with seemingly hidden re- Known as the shark because of his devastating knack chiefs had failed to react swiftly when Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and serves. But at just 22 it remains to be seen if the success of taking out opponents at key moments, Nibali almost first warned of allegations surrounding Gabby Douglas. Blackmun was also he has garnered in the Tour of California, the Paris-Nice pulled off a fourth Grand Tour win in May when he came Nassar, concealing the doctor’s crimes sharply criticized for bungling USOC’s re- and the Tour de Suisse can be reproduced at the much second in the Giro. With just four weeks recovery time until the scandal erupted into the open in sponse to the crisis after it erupted, and longer three-week Tour de France. since then Nibali has to be an outsider to clinch a second late 2016.

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