ATLANTA, June 24 -- Foreign athletes looking at the times posted at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials should be salivating over the prospect of breaking records when they arrive in Atlanta next month. But to do so, they'd better be able to stand the heat. More than a dozen 1996-best times were established on the new Olympic Stadium track over the eight days of the Trials, capped Sunday when Michael Johnson brought down the oldest standing world record by running a 19.66 in the men's 200 meters. 'The conditions here are perfect,' said Johnson, who also came within 14-hundredths of a second of breaking another world record earlier in the week by winning the men's 400. And Johnson wasn't the only one to thrive on the hard and fast surface in Atlanta. Allen Johnson, the reigning world champion in the 110-meter hurdles, tied the U.S. record for the event by clearing the 10 barriers in 12.92 seconds. That was only one-hundredth off Colin Jackson's world mark set in 1993. Only six men in history have broken the 13-second barrier in the 110 hurdles, and two of them did so at the Trials. The other was Jack Pierce, who ran a 12.94 in his semifinal heat, only to crash out of the final when he caught the underside of the first hurdle with his foot. 'I was gunning for the world record,' admitted Pierce, who said the mishap ruined 'the best start of my life.'
Dennis Mitchell and Gwen Torrence put their names at the top of the 1996 world charts when they won their 100-meter finals, though Mitchell will share the spot with Trinidad's Ato Boldon. Same with Bryan Bronson and Kim Batten in the 400 hurdles. And in the women's 200, each of the top four finishers posted a time better than the previous world best for the year. The fourth just happened to be Torrence, who lost a chance to defend the Olympic 200 title she won four years ago in Barcelona. For the sharp eye, there's a discernable pattern to this. Each of those races travels no more than one lap around the track. By design, the track decidedly favors sprinters over distance runners. 'It's definitely a sprinter's track,' said Bob Kennedy, who won the men's 5,000 meters. 'They want to see records in the 100, the 200, the 400. It's not for the 5,000.' When Atlanta officials began planning the Olympic Stadium facility, a decision was made to set down a track conducive to breaking records in what are the glamor races in the United States -- the sprints. As a result, the surface is one of the fastest in the world. 'It's almost illegal,' said John Smith, who coaches Boldon and U.S. sprinter Jon Drummond, and he's right. The surface is composed of vulcanized rubber sheets measuring five- eighths of an inch thick, baked at extreme heat. According to Mondo, the track's Italian manufacturer, the shock absorption rating is 35.6 percent, just within the international minimum of 35 percent.
Fast, hot times on Atlanta track--moreNEWLN:(XXX of 35 percent.)
'There's never been a surface created like this,' said Michael DiNatale, Mondo's national sales manager. 'The energy return on it is just unbelievable. That's what makes it fast.' According to Smith, it's like the difference between driving a Ferrari and a Volkswagen. And combined with the heat, it can have a detrimental effect on runners unaccustomed to the bounce. 'You're going to have some vibration, and it's got to go somewhere,' he said. 'So it will go in your legs, your calves, your hamstrings.' And that can lead to muscle cramps. The final of the men's 100 looked like a Shakespearean tragedy, with bodies littered all over the finish- line area. Nearly everybody in the final had their muscles lock up as a result of the fast track and sweltering conditions. 'I thought I had prepared myself well in Houston (another muggy climate), and I still got dehydrated here,' said Carl Lewis, who finished last in the 100 after getting cramps in his right calf. The heat is going to have the biggest effect on the distance runners and multiple-event competitors. Temperatures on Sunday measured 100 degrees in the shade, and as much as 113 on the track -- with a humidity reading of 79 percent. At the end of the women's 10-kilometer race walk on Saturday, nearly half the competitors were taken in for medical treatment. The heat caused decathlete Aric Long to throw up and briefly pass out during the second day of competition, and also was a contributing factor in Jackie Joyner-Kersee failing for the first time in 12 years to win a heptathlon she completed. In the decathlon, Dan O'Brien was nine points ahead of world-record pace after nine events, but didn't have enough left in the 1,500 to challenge the mark. 'I think I set a world record for IVs,' O'Brien said. The three-time world champion said he paused for intravenous doses of saline solution twice each day during the competition. He compared its effects to 'being cooled from the inside out.'
