Jeremy Wariner

JEREMY IN AUSTRALIA

No great deviation to normal preparations

Wariner’s coach Clyde Hart, who guided Michael Johnson to the 200m and 400m World records as well as World and Olympic titles, said racing at that time of year held no fears for his current Olympic champion who he is preparing for a 400m title defence in Beijing in August.

 Coach Clyde Hart with his pupil, World and Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner
(Baylor University Sports Information)

“I don't think that it's a problem if Jeremy wants to run in February because he has done that to a much greater degree and won the Olympics off it in 2004 and he ran probably six indoor meets and one of those was the NCAA championships when he won both the 400m and ran on a relay,” said Hart speaking from the Baylor University track at Waco, Texas.

“He ran a lot of races that year prior to the Olympics so this is a very short schedule compared to that.”

“So this is not any great deviation. We just in the last couple of years haven't done any indoor competition. But since this is outdoors and the weather should be nice and warm that's no reason we need be concerned.”

“We're just opposed to running indoors because it takes a lot of different strain running on a small track. Outdoors I don't see any problem if we can get the training in - and the weather's been good so far.”

Wariner, 23, lines-up in the 200m in the Sydney Grand Prix and has nominated for the 400m at the World Athletics Tour meet in Melbourne. His training partner Darold Williamson, 24, will compete over 400m in Sydney and 200m in Melbourne.

The Melbourne meeting is the second leg of the 2008 World Athletics Tour which culminates at the IAAF / VTB Bank World Athletics Final, Stuttgart, Germany, 13-14 September 2008, as the meeting in Shanghai, China (28 Sep 2007) which followed a week after this year’s Final began the points scoring opportunities for the 2008 Tour.

Wariner and Williamson were both part of the US team who won the 4x400m relay at the Osaka World championships last August, Williamson (who split 44.32) handing off to Wariner who anchored in a stunning 43.10.

“I am looking forward to running in Australia in February. It will be my first time visiting the country down under.  I am excited about competing here for the first time as I prepare for the summer Olympics in Beijing,” Wariner was quoted in an Australian Athletics announcement today.

With current world recordholder Michael Johnson as his track agent and Hart coaching him, Wariner whose 43.45 second victory in Osaka (31 August) makes him the third fastest in history, seems destined to break Johnson's 400m record of 43.18.

Set for sub-45 in Australia

“We're not going to accelerate Jeremy's training because he's racing in Australia,” added Hart, mindful of the Olympic challenge further on down the track.

“He's just going to run off of whatever training he has. How sharp he'll be, we'll just have to wait and see, but I don't feel like it will be much of a problem.”

“I think Jeremy, if he's in shape and ready, will always be under 45sec.”

“It just depends on where we want to be and how much training we can fit in to that point of time in February. We're certainly not going over there just to do a workout. That would be ridiculous.”

“We're going to train, try to get some warm weather but I also think the competition needs to be something that he can get something out of it.”

That may depend to some degree on how Australia’s “silver bullets” 4x400m Athens Olympic relay squad comes up, especially the Commonwealth Games champion John Steffensen.

Despite clocking back-to-back sub-45sec times, Steffensen missed the Osaka individual 400m final by one place. He struggled throughout 2007 with back-related hamstring problems in both legs but has been training well in Sydney. 

If Steffensen was surprised Wariner would be competing in Australia he didn't let on, saying only: “That’s good. I'm just trying to get ready day by day. Training is going good, so I can't complain at the moment.”

Clyde Hart in his office with paintings of his famous pupils
Wariner and Johnson (Getty Images)

Mike Hurst - The Daily Telegraph in Sydney - for the IAAF