World's fastest man running in Relays
Maurice Greene and Co. make the Kansas Relays a speedy, blink-free event
By Matt Norton
Kansan sportswriter
The 75th annual Kansas Relays will feature more than 4,000 high school, college and professional track athletes. But the buzz is firmly centered around just one Maurice Greene.
Greene will run in an invitational 4x100-meter relay with HSI teammates Larry Wade, Jon Drummond and Kaaron Conwright at 7:15 Saturday night.
The world-record holder and defending Olympic gold medalist in the 100-meter dash and 4x100 was a high school star at Kansas City, Kan.'s Schlagle High School before moving to Los Angeles and finding world fame.
Greene said competing in a year without an Olympics or World Championships to point toward provided a special opportunity to him.
"It's just competitions throughout the United States and Europe that I will be
competing in and just have fun." Greene said.
"I love to have fun," he added. "That's what it's all about. You have to enjoy yourself. Our sport is very demanding, and like I said, I've been going through a lot these last couple months."
Greene has also faced personal hardship in the recent past. His grandmother and
An injury during the
uncle have died in 2002, putting new perspective on the sport for Greene, he said.
Greene said he resumed training in January and is at full strength, ready to redeem himself for a loss two weeks ago at the Texas Relays in the 4x100.
"What happened at Texas? I was playing around," he said. "I was playing around and misjudged it. That will never happen again."
100-meter final at last summer's World Championships may have cost him an opportunity to break his own world record of 9.79 seconds. But he limped across the line and still won the championship.
After joining HSI, a professional track team, on Monday, Conwright was added to the relay team on Tuesday after Ato
"I love to have fun. That's what it's all about. You have to enjoy yourself."
Maurice Greene World's fastest man
Boldon had to pull out of the meet.
Conwright, a 2000 graduate of Cal-Poly, said the news was a pleasant shock.
"I literally tripped on my shoes," he said. "I had to call my girlfriend and let her know I was coming up here."
Despite being thrown into the race alongside Greene, someone he had often watched on television in recent years; Conwright said he was excited, not nervous.
While the men from HSI will command
a lot of attention this weekend, there are many other world-class athletes who will compete at the Relays.
Terrence Trammell, the 2001 world indoor gold medalist in the 60-meter hurdles and 2000 Olympic silver medalist in the 110 hurdles, will compete in the latter event on Saturday. Karol Damon, the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials champion in the high jump, will compete today in her specialty. Lawrence Johnson, former American record holder in the pole vault and 2000 Olympic silver medalist, will square off against former Kansas stars Pat Manson and former American record holder Scott Huffman on 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. Kevin Toth, a three-time U.S. indoor champion in the shot put and a 1997 contestant on the "World's Strongest Man Contest," will show off his strength today at 2:00 in the shot.
Kansas All-Americans seniors Scott Russell, Andrea Bulat, Katy Eisenmenger, Jabari Wamble, Brian Blachly, Charlie Gruber and freshman Brookly Hann will headline collegiate competition.
Contact Norton at mntoron@kansan.com.
This story was edited by Justin Henning.
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