Gay bolts to victory in 200 meters

INDIANAPOLIS – That blur speeding through Indy was Tyson Gay.

Running on a wet track, with the wind blowing in his face, Gay completed one of the most impressive sprint doubles in the sport’s history Sunday.

The quiet, 24-year-old former Arkansas sprinter ran the second-fastest 200 meters ever, a 19.62-second dash that broke Michael Johnson’s meet record on the final day of the U.S. track and field championships.

Add that to his 9.84-second triumph into the wind in the 100 on Friday, and no other sprinter’s marks in the same meet can match him.

Despite a 0.46 mph headwind, Gay’s 200 time was second only to Johnson’s world record 19.32 set at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Johnson set the U.S. meet record of 19.66 at the Olympic Trials earlier that year, a world record at the time.

Wallace Spearmon, the defending U.S. champion and Gay’s training partner in Fayetteville, Ark., was second in 19.89, with Rodney Martin third at 20.18.

Defending world champion Allyson Felix won the women’s 200 in 22.34. Sanya Richards, who failed to make the U.S. team with a fourth-place finish in her best event, the 400, on Saturday, made the squad in the 200 with a second-place finish at 22.43. Torri Edwards, the 100-meter winner on Friday, was third in the 200 at 22.55.

The athletes wrapped up four days of competition at Carroll Stadium on the edge of downtown Indianapolis. The top three finishers in each event make the U.S. team for the world championships to be held Sept. 25-Aug. 2 in Osaka, Japan, providing they have met the necessary qualifying standards. In addition, defending world champions get a bye to Osaka as long as they competed in something at the U.S. meet.

Alan Webb broke Steve Scott’s 25-year-old meet record in the 1,500, winning his third U.S. title in 3:34.82.

Webb surged ahead of defending champion Bernard Lagat over the final 30 meters for the victory. Leonel Manzano was second and Lagat, the meet’s 5,000 champion, finished third.