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Clown Prince of the track set to be surprise package
SYDNEY, Sept 14 (AFP) - American sprinter Jon Drummond has made a habit of messing up on the big occasion but this time his manager Emmanuel Hudson believes the self-styled 'Clown Prince of the Track' can make an impression at what will probably be his last Olympics. Hudson thinks that Drummond, who is set to compete in the 100m at his second Olympics despite three bouts of spinal meningitis in recent years, is running into the sort of form that could win him a medal. "He's right in line as he's already won an Olympic medal (silver medallist in the 4x100 relay in Atlanta)," said the Los Angelese-based lawyer who formed the elite Hudson Smith International (HSI) athletics group in 1996. "He had a stomach problem in the individual event in Atlanta but this time round he won't repeat the same mistake." It is incredible that Drummond, he of the ready wit and constant practical jokes and who has two 4x100m relay world championship gold medals, even made it to the track. He was born with spina bifida leading doctors to tell his parents that he would never walk and would be mentally impaired. However, the son of a clergyman, who is a stablemate of world recordholder Maurice Greene and Trinidad's 1997 200m world champion Ato Boldon, defied the medical experts to become a college star although again not without problems. Running in a 200m college final Drummond, who is also a top gospel singer and had a number one album hit in 1993 with the group Kirk Franklin and the Family, stumbled and broke his toe which had a lasting designer effect on him as he only races with one sock on to this day. So it is not without reason that Hudson is full of admiration for the extrovert sprinter and rates his chances highly particularly after he ran 9.96 seconds behind Greene with Boldon a hugely disappointing last in the last IAAF Golden League meeting in Berlin. "Jon is a unique character and its been a long voyage for him to travel," Hudson said. "He's certainly a lot closer to winning this time than he has ever been," he added. Hudson, who said that the HSI group would train in secret because they didn't like to be interrupted by other athletes who asked for autographs and cost them valuable training time, said Drummond was not running consistently but it was nothing to worry about. "He's been saving himself like Lawrence Johnson (the third member of the 100m USA team and another HSI teammate)," he said. "I think it's because he doesn't have the confidence to do it every week and needs to conserve himself mentally for the bigger tasks." However, Drummond who turns 32 on September 9, has shown such fighting qualities to win a place in the blue riband event of the Games that maybe, just maybe his prediction made a few years ago could come true. "Maybe it'll take me till I'm 30-plus to become a 100m Olympic gold medallist," he once said. Should that happen the joke will be very much on those who always dismissed him as just Greene and Boldon's court jester -- a man who has overcome so many obstacles is made of much sterner stuff than that.
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