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The final meet before Sydney
Last year Maurice Greene set the world record of 9.79 seconds in the 100 meters. Since then, he has been considered the man to beat at the Olympics. Check out Greene's diary on CNNSI.com as he prepares to compete in Sydney. August 29, 2000
I arrived in Berlin this afternoon from Newcastle, England. Travel is travel. Always the same. This is my second trip to Europe this summer, and I've been over here since Aug. 4. One good thing is that I'm traveling with most of the other people in our HSI group: coach John Smith, Ato Boldon, Curtis Johnson and Jon Drummond. Inger Miller was with us until this week, but she went home to Los Angeles to get ready for what she's trying to do in Sydney, because she has two races to run, plus a relay. For me, this has been a good trip. I ran 9.94 in the 100 meters in Zurich in the first race after my injury in Sacramento. Then I ran 10.01 into the wind at Monaco and 9.88 with a little wind at my back in Brussels. So I feel like I've been getting faster with every race. The thing I'm really excited about now is the 4x100 relay we ran Monday at the Gateshead meet in Newcastle. Me and Jon and Curtis and Bernard Williams, who just joined our group now that he's done running for Florida, ran 37.95 in terrible conditions. It was cold and windy and raining and we used safe handoffs. That's the fastest time in the world this year. I think the four of us are the team that should run the relay final for the United States in Sydney. We're all in the relay pool. Back at the trials, the U.S. coaches said they were going to get the pool runners together for a relay camp in Europe, but they haven't done anything. So the four of us got together, practiced our passes and then asked the Gateshead meet to put in a four-by-one for us. We're running another four-by-one Friday night in Berlin, and if the weather is better, I think we'll run a very fast time. I also ran the 100 at Gateshead. It was 2 1/2 hours after the relay. I ran a good anchor on the relay and then my muscles just became too cold. I just ran an easy race. I could have pushed myself harder, but I could have hurt myself, too, and that's not the point right now. I finished third in 10.23. Dwain Chambers of England won the race, so the British fans are all excited. That's fine. I'm going to run the 100 in Berlin, too, and I expect to run a very fast time. Curtis and Bernard and JD are in the race. I think Brian Lewis is in there, too. Those are the people I'm looking at. Runners from outside the U.S. haven't been doing anything special this summer. I heard that Bruny Surin pulled up at the Canadian trials, and I haven't seen him over here. I haven't even heard anybody talking about him. But I'm still going to count on him being there in Sydney. People still ask me about what happened in the 200 meters in Sacramento, when Michael Johnson and I both pulled up. They want to know if I'm disappointed that I'm not running the 200 in Sydney. I don't even think about it anymore. The one thing that I felt after the race that still bothers me is that I didn't finish. I rattled Johnson and I knew he wasn't going to finish that race. I just wish I had finished it. But right now I'm excited about the 100 and the relay. I'm really excited about both of them for Friday night in Berlin. After that, I'm going back home to L.A. I'll be home by Saturday afternoon, which is Sept. 2. Then I leave for Sydney on Sept. 7. -- Maurice
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