Gatlin gunning for US record ahead of Shanghai Diamond League

The world silver medallist from Moscow last summer was speaking at the first press conference of the week ahead of the Shanghai Diamond League meeting on Sunday, 18 May, when he hopes to notch up his first 100m victory of the 2014 Diamond Race.
Having run 10.02 into a stiff headwind in Tokyo last weekend, Gatlin is gunning for his first sub-10 second run of the year when he takes on Jamaica’s world and Olympic relay champion Nesta Carter and former world champion Kim Collins at the Shanghai Stadium.
The fastest 100m in the world so far is 9.98 by South African Simon Magakwe, but Gatlin is hoping to go considerably quicker over the next two years, targeting Gay’s record of 9.69, equal second quickest ever behind Usain Bolt’s 9.58 WR.
“This is a down year in terms of there being no World Championships or Olympics, so I want to set the tempo as some opponents take it easier, and then carry that dominance on to the World Championships in 2015 and Olympic year,” he said.
“I believe as athletes we have a duty to train as hard as we can and look for opportunities to break records. Records that stand for a long time put an event on pause.
“For me, I want to go out and break the US record. That’s my focus for this year and the next.”
At 31, Gatlin admitted he is now one of the elder statesmen of world sprinting, but he believes the well-documented ups and downs of his career have made him a better athlete.
“I feel I get better, stronger and wiser with age, and become more diligent every year,” he said. “I continue to be motivated because I love running for the fans, I love seeing them get excited.”

Gatlin first competed in Shanghai nine years ago shortly after winning both sprint titles at the 2005 IAAF World Championships. He was Olympic 100m champion at the time, and won over 100m at that year’s Shanghai Golden League meeting, but later served a four-year drugs suspension before returning to action in 2010.
He was back in the city last year when he placed second to Warren Weir in a rain-drenched 200m.
“This meeting has always been a great experience for me,” he said. “Even last year in the pouring rain I still ran good times.
“I think I’m capable for running very, very fast at the beginning of this season. I hope I can excite the fans with that.”

Like Gatlin, Veronica Cambell-Brown’s focus is also on the next couple of years.
The great Jamaican sprinter has been slowly returning to form after her own drug-related absence from the sport last year, and on Sunday will race over 200m against her compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the woman who has succeeded her as Olympic and world 200m champion in the last two seasons.
“I’m working on getting back into a competitive spirit and getting race sharp again,” said Campbell-Brown, who’s celebrating her 32nd birthday today.
“I just want to get better technically, because it’s all about preparing myself for the next two years.
“This meet is a great meet,” she added. “It’s good to be here in China with the World Championships in Beijing next year. I like the Bird’s Nest. I had great success in that stadium and I’m looking forward to going back there.”
In the meantime, Campbell-Brown’s objective on Sunday is “to compete well and have fun”, which seems to be the order of the day for Christian Taylor too.

The languid, multi-talented American added the 2012 Olympic triple jump crown to the world title he won in 2011. But he could only finish fourth at last year’s World Championships in Moscow when he had a pit-side seat for Frenchman Teddy Tamgho’s spectacular 18-metre winner.
That iconic barrier is one Taylor had been trying to breach himself for some time. His personal best is agonisingly close at 17.96m, just 33cm short of Jonathan Edwards’ world record, so to see another athlete make the magic leap before him was tough to take.
“Seeing that made it real for me,” he said. “From my training I definitely thought I could do it, but it was done to me, not by me.
“Before that the world record seemed unattainable, now it doesn’t. But it’s about taking baby steps towards it. Hopefully, I won’t need too many before I can get the big one.”
Taylor will take the next of those steps on Sunday, when he hops, skips and jumps against his fellow-American Will Claye, a long and triple jump medallist
from London 2012, and Britain’s 2009 world champion, Phillips Idowu, making a return to competition after a season out.
“I just want to give the fans a show and get some Diamond League points,” said Taylor who has won the triple jump Diamond Race for the last two years. “It’s the first Diamond League meeting this season with a triple jump so I want maximum points, and to have a good time.”
Taylor is far from single-minded, however. He was fourth in the long jump at the Doha meeting last week, and ran an impressive personal best for 400m at the Drake Relays in April.
“This year I’m trying to show some versatility,” explained the 23-year-old. “I want to do some 400s and long jumps and have some fun.
“I decided I’d been a bit too stressed so I want to try to compete with a smile on my face and stay young.”

For 400m hurdler Jehue Gordon there’s a slightly different focus as he gears up for this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with a race against USA’s Michael Tinsley, the man he beat to win the 2013 world title.
“I want to give it my best here because this is the start of the build-up to the Commonwealth Games, which is very important for us in the Caribbean,” said the 22-year-old from Trinidad and Tobago.
Gordon broke his national record to win the Moscow gold, clocking 47.69, and says his ultimate aim is to “get as close as possible to 47 seconds” before then thinking about Kevin Young’s legendary world record of 46.78 from the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.
“Very few people have been close to 47 seconds since, but the record is not really my focus at the moment,” he said. “I just want to be more consistent.
“It’s never easy for me because I’m still a full-time student at the University of West Indies. This is going to be the first real test for me out here on Sunday.”
It’s a statement that’s equally true for all four athletes.