Athlete Quotes - Day 10 (Friday 8/12)

OFFICIALS

USATF CEO Craig Masback: "There were some incredible efforts by individuals and by some of the teams. It seemed like a very long week - off to a fast start, a bit of a lull in the middle, and I think the team really pulled itself together as a team. That was very impressive. We had 19 medals, which was our best performance since Gothenburg (1995, 19 medals). We were in reach of 20, which would have been our best since Stuttgart (1993, 25 medals). With nine golds, we had the most golds. 19 medals tied with Russia for the most medals. And the IAAF points table, we did win that. So we can continue to call ourselves the World's #1 Track & Field Team.

"The plusses are, once again our veterans coming through. Obviously, Marion had a great performance, Maurice a very courageous performance, John Godina getting back to where he was, Stacy winning. Those are the people we count on, and they came through. Then of course you have great new faces like Anjanette Kirkland doing better than expected, Crawford in the 200 meters, Stringfellow in the long jump - those are the people of the future that we need to start getting consistency from ... Jenny Adams in the hurdles. That's the mix.

"The other highlight for me was there was more of a team feeling with this team than any team I witnessed when I was on a national team, or the ones since I've been here (since 1997). It was our Athletes' Advisory Committee that came here with a set plan of how to do that. Everything from Khalid Khannouchi having Maurice Greene come over to him at the first team meeting, getting a hug from him and saying welcome to the U.S. team, to the whole team standing up and cheering for the hopes of the marathoners on the first day to every night when the medal winners came back to the hotel, having a champagne toast and celebrating the success of the team. I think in the long term, those kinds of things will make a big difference."

"To some people, I expressed a little concern this week that we've got to do better at preparing our team, to give the people that make our team the best possible chance to reach their potential. In the weeks between our national championships and whenever the big meet is - World Championships or Olympics. That has to be a focus of what we do. Can we help people who don't have competitions find competitions? Can we help people who think they have to run too much to support themselves make the right decision and not run so much that they come here tired. That's the first thing.

"The second thing we talked about is a whole new approach to relay racing, to provide more consistency from event to event. It's a terrible burden on our coaches, who come to these World Championship or Olympic events to start from zero each time, build relationships with athletes, decide what methodologies to use, and put a team on the track. We've got to help those coaches by providing more continuity in terms of, what's the American system for handing off batons in the 4x100m relay. That stays the same. We teach that to kids through elite, and every kid learns that.

"The next thing we've got to do is, we've got to target individual events and figure out how we can develop medal winners in each event. The breakthrough thinking that we've done since last fall is we've got our best coaches thinking about, on an event-by-event basis, how do you identify talented kids, how do you nurture them while they're in college, what do you do for them when they get out of college, and then how do you get them ready to be one of the best in the world? We've never looked at the sport that way before. Brooks Johnson, one of our best all-time coaches, is heading this effort up, and I think it will really make a difference between now and Athens.

Women's head coach J.J. Clark: On the U.S. medal total - "I thought it was good. We started a little slow, but we picked it up and became a strong U.S. team. It's us showing our power. We left a lot of people home. It's a really good, strong point that we left a lot of veterans home and we still did well."

On the 4x400m relay: "Things happen. There's nothing you can do. It's the best four we have. I wouldn't have done anything differently. The order was great. We had a 49 (second) leadoff, 49 middle, Michelle was 49 high, and I think Suziann would have done the same thing. We had veterans in there. ... Jamaica was doing the same thing - that was a team that's been around while."

On the 4x100m relay: "Marion Jones is sensational. She's a team player, and she did great. She came up to me after the race and gave me a big hug. It's all harmony."

Men's head coach Orin Richburg: On the 4x100 relay: "Mickey (Grimes) ran on the team that ran 38.18 at Crystal Palace. We were confident that in terms of legs, he could do the job. Drummond has been with us the whole time. Jon just took him (Grimes) aside and told him to just relax and go run. That's what he (Grimes) did."

On the 4x400m relay: "We had the guys to put it on the track and do what they needed to do."

EVENTS

Men's 4x100m relay

Bernard Williams: "It feels pretty good. I'm glad to get another medal. I'm glad it's gold. I'm glad that this battle is over, and we'll prepare for the next war. They (the handoffs) were real sweet. As we got it going, we made a couple of adjustments. As you can see, it turned out to be good."

Dennis Mitchell: "The last two days have been sweet and sour. In the end, somehow we get four guys on that track that get the job done. I appreciate the last 16 years, 17 years - I lost count. I appreciate the other three guys always getting on the track and always doing the best that they can. The last 48 hours have been kind of up and down for us, but it made us a stronger team. ... All the guys on the team knew this was going to be my last one. The guys really said they were going to run this race for me today. When John went out yesterday, he felt not only bad for himself but bad that he couldn't be out there with me today, because we shared so many years together. Since we couldn't run the race together, we shared that moment."

Mickey Grimes: "It's a pleasure. I had a coach who had faith in me and three other guys who had faith in me, including Jon Drummond. After the second round, he came to me and told me to relax because he saw I was tense in the second round. It's great. I'm very happy. I want to thank god and my coach, James Williams. I love him. I can't wait 'til next year. It's time for me to put on a show next year.

Tim Montgomery: "It feels great. It's a great accomplishment. I gave everything I had. I'm coming off a great race, and a great season. This is the sweetest.

Men's 4x100m Relay 1st Round

Dennis Mitchell: "When I was coming around that turn, and I was giving it everything that I had, and as soon as Tim (Montgomery) took off, I knew our distance was too far for me to catch him, so I started screaming for him to back off a little bit right away. He finally heard me and it gave me a half a step, I came right up on him and it's just something that we are going to have to adjust in the final."

Men's 1500m FINAL

Paul McMullen: "It was pretty dang fast. I had it my head today that I was ready to go, but it just wasn't my day as far as my body. For some reason, the quick pace got to me and normally I can hang out in that fine, but I just don't know what it was. My body wasn't there to respond. I did my best though, 100% effort and I was proud of myself to get on the pace and keep going with it."

Men's Javelin FINAL

Breaux Greer: "It was a good day, it could have been better, it could have been worse. It's kind of hard to beat three 90 meter throwers. I'm still a young guy, so one of these days, hopefully I'll be the man. ... I'm excited! The whole goal for me, when I started, was 2004. I've got a little confidence going into it, I've got some time. Last year was he first year that I actually trained for the javelin, so two years into it, I'm not doing that bad. We have a great training group, I have a great coach, I can't complain. Everything is going well right now."

Women's High Jump FINAL

Amy Acuff: "I really had a lot of trouble with my approach. It was very frustrating because I felt so on in the qualifying round. Every time I looked up at the monitor, I was up underneath that bar taking off. It was tricky out there. There were gusty winds, it's a very fast and bouncy surface, so it was a challenge to get it just right."

Men's 4x400m Relay FINAL

Leonard Byrd: "I just wanted to go out there and run smart and try to put us back in the race and that was my job."

Antonio Pettigrew: "I think we answered all the questions today. It was a great feeling being out there. We did well and I had three great young runners and there were consistent. This is my last World Championships. I will not be in Paris for 2003. I will run next year, but I won't be running as seriously. This is my last 4x400 for the U.S., I will run a couple meets next year, locally in the States and I will run a couple of international meets and then I'll retire from that."

"We got a lot of good young guys, and they will keep it going for the United States. I have no doubt that they won't, but its time for me to retire. It was a great race today, five times we won here in the World Championships and I'm just happy that I was a part of those races. That's a good feeling and I will let the young guys carry on."

Derrick Brew: "This was my first World Championships and it felt good to run here today. When I got the stick, all I was thinking about was giving Angelo (Taylor) a lead. I knew if I gave him a lead, he was strong enough to hold it and bring the gold home."

On the new tradition of 4x400 relay..."It feels good. We are all young, we are all about the same age. We should be here for a while and I think we can do this every time we get on the track."

Angelo Taylor: "We are going to continue to win. We have a good group of young 4x400 runners and we're just gonna do our part. Its always gonna continue. Being the U.S., we are always going to have good 400m runners. Winning the 4x400 is a team effort, it just doesn't depend upon one individual, it's a team effort, everybody's gotta go out there and do your part. If everybody doesn't run well, no matter who you have on the anchor leg, even Michael Johnson and go down and catch everybody."

Women's 4x400m Relay FINAL

Michelle Collins: "It was a clean pass that I passed on to her and I think maybe she was trying to change hands and I think her body was moving faster than everything else. I think its unfortunate that when she tried to switch hands, I think it kinda got tangled up a little bit and it fell. She's devastated and we're supporting her, she has a bright future ahead of her."

"We feel like we should have gotten the gold medal here. These things happen, this is track and field. We are just going to move on and learn from this experience and hopefully we can get gold in the years to come."

"I was feeling really good today. I could smell gold. Its just unfortunate, these things happen. We were in the lead and bam - we lost it that quick. She wasn't able to recover."

"It was devastating in the beginning because we were in the lead. These things happen and we move on and learn from this."

"I don't think Suziann was nervous. Suziann is a very confident runner, she wasn't intimated by any other runner. It just bobbled, it went down and it was just one of those things."

Jearl Miles-Clark: "I just knew that we came out here to win, it didn't happen. Things like this happen. It makes you a better runner - you learn from it. There are no certainties. Its an experience and you've gotta lift your heads and go with that."

"We came out here and we did the best we could. I think every American that stepped onto the track did that. Whatever we come out of here with, we gotta live with it. So does everybody else. We tried our best."

Monique Hennagan: "It's disappointing, and I realize that's a part of competing. Of course she didn't mean to do that, obviously it wasn't meant for us to win this today. It can happen to anybody and I just really feel bad for her and this is really disappointing for us and I just hope that she can pick it up and go on from there. It's a part of competing."

"I don't feel like she (Suziann Reid) was intimated. She went to one of the top universities and ran with the top relay teams, so she's experienced at baton exchanges, but it happens. Thumbs up to her for picking it up and recovering and still getting fourth place. She still beat five other teams out there, with dropping the baton. Everybody went out there and put their hearts on the line, including hers, its just that things like this happen."

Women's marathon final

Jill Gaitenby, 32nd, 2:39:20: "I felt great. The crowd support was tremendous. I ran a lot of the first half with Canada's Sandy Jacobsen and then a little in the second half with Canada's Tina Connolly, so the crowds were making a lot of noise around me all the way. I was a little slower than I wanted to be from the beginning, but kept moving up all the way. I passed five or six other runners in the last couple of miles. I didn't feel any worse or any better as the race went along. I just couldn't go any faster. ... I'm in much better shape than the time shows. This wasn't the kind of weather where you could run good times."

"I've been training with the Fila Discovery USA Team, which has been great for us. They flew us to St. Moritz for a month of altitude training before Worlds. I felt I got in really good shape."

Michelle Simonaitis, 41st, 2:46:20: "Rosa and I worked together. We kept moving up, moving up. We planned on running about 6:15 pace from the beginning. I would have bad spots, and she would move ahead and say, 'C'mon Michelle.' And then she would have a bad spot, and I'd move ahead and say, "C'mon Rosa.' It wasn't one of my best times, but being an alternate, I didn't have a lot of time to build up for this. I got stomach sick from 18 miles on, but I had to finish."

Rosa Gutierrez, 42nd, 2:49:08: "I couldn't quite stay with Michelle at the end. The last 10-K I was feeling the effects of only having six weeks of preparation for the marathon instead of 12. I only found out I was going to be here about 10 days ago when I got a call from Carol McLatchie. I had been doing some heavy training weeks, up to 140 miles, to get ready for New York this fall. But I'm not ready yet. When Carol called and I explained my training to her, I asked, 'What do you think?' She said, 'Go for it.' That was all I needed to hear."

Rachel Cook, 45th, 2:53:21: "I thought I was ready to go. Three weeks ago, I had one of the best workouts of my life. Maybe I had a bad taper or maybe I went out too quick. The plan was to run 6 minutes per mile, but it never felt easy at all. At the half-marathon, I was dead and thought about quitting, but I reminded myself that it was the World Championships, and no one said it was going to be easy. So I just tried to take it one kilometer at a time. I said to myself 'Roll, roll' and other things to keep me going. I told myself I just needed to get to the finish line, even if I got there a little wobbly."

Jennifer Tonkin DNF, 1:21:02 at the half-marathon, comments from Rosa Gutierrez: "We ran behind Jennifer for 15-K, and it looked like she was working pretty hard. When we passed, we tried to get her to work with us. She did for a little bit. But then she faded back, and we didn't see her again."