CHAT EN INGLÉS CON JEREMY WARINER

Jeremy Wariner, 23, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist and 2005 World Champion in the 400-meter run, will race the first round of the 400 at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan a week from today (Tuesday). The other American entrants in the 400 are LaShawn Merritt, Angelo Taylor, and Lionel Larry. Wariner, who is coached by Clyde Hart and counseled by 400 (and 200) world recordholder Michael Johnson, set his personal 400 best of 43.50 in Stockholm on August 7; he’s now #3 on the event’s all-time list. Wariner also won a gold in the 4x400 relay at the Athens Olympics and another relay gold at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. He was part of a U.S. record indoor 4x400 relay (3:01.96) in 2006. A native Texan and a former wide receiver in high school football, Wariner won the 2004 NCAA indoor and outdoor 400-meter titles and the indoor and outdoor 4x400 relays for Baylor University. Wariner spoke by teleconference on Monday.

How’s your preparation going for Osaka? Are you where you wanted to be?
Jeremy Wariner: Actually, it’s going real well right now. I’m actually ahead of where I thought I would be at at this moment. Coach Hart has pulled out some of Michael’s workouts from seven days before he broke a world record in 1999 and compared my workouts to his. We’re basically doing the same workouts, but some of my times, the average time, has been faster, but some have been exactly the same. According to Coach Hart, we’re on pace training wise to go for the record if we go for it…. My body feels real well right now. After tomorrow, I get two days off because of traveling and then the important thing is I get over there a few days before my first round, so I’ll be adjusted real well, and I’m looking forward to getting ready to go.

Do you always train basically as Michael trained? Or has Coach Hart been pushing you more, so that’s why your workouts are reflecting Michael’s?
JW: The workouts we do, we’ve always done the same workouts every day, every year. Coach Hart has never changed the workouts … When I first got into the Baylor system, my times weren’t as good, the reps (repetitions) weren’t as good, but as the years go on, I’m trying to get to that level where we’re cutting my rest down a little bit (and ) we’ve been speeding my times up. This year, I’ve been running my workouts a lot better than I ever have. So he (Hart) was trying to compare mine to what Michael did when he broke the world record (Johnson‘s 43.18), just to see where I would be at. And before I left over for London and Stockholm, we did one workout where he told me Michael ran two 350s; he ran a 42.5 and a 41 on his second one. And I had run two 42s. I was right there with him. And then this week I ran a 40-point and a 41 (with five minutes rest in-between), so I’m ahead of where he was on the 350s that day.

You’ve said you’ll wait and see about going for the world record (in Osaka), but you’re not saying you definitely will. What would make it ideal conditions to go after it?
JW: I’m not going to go after it. If the record comes, it comes. That’s not the thing I’m going for. I’m going for the victory. And with the victory, hopefully maybe I’ll have the record at the same time. I’m just going to go out there and run my race like I always have. Like I say, if it comes, it comes. If not, I’ve got a whole long career in front of me. It’s just one race. I’ve got so many races ahead of me where I can try and go for it. So I’m going to just run, and hopefully, it’ll happen, but if not, I’ve got next year and the year after that to go for it.

You’ve run a lot of 200s but haven’t broken 20 seconds yet. It’s perhaps improved your speed. But is it just that you’re gifted with speed endurance (for the 400), but when dropping down to the 200, you’re just not as advanced at this point in your career as some of your colleagues?
JW: No. Coach Hart would always say, the faster my 200 meters, the better my quarter (400) is going to be, and that is the main reason why we’ve been running a lot of 200s last year and this year. But at the same time, he said you don’t have to be sub-20 200-meter runner to run a good 400.… You have to have a lot more than just the speed. I have the talent of being able to have the strength at the end and the speed at the beginning but also the speed endurance to help. You throw all those in at once, it helps a lot. The faster my 200 is, it helps me be able to comfortable through the first 200 of the quarter. It’s a long process and Coach Hart has basically broken it down for me; it’s hard to explain. But there are so many things that I still have to work on.

What exactly has led to this kind of breakthrough to topping Michael Johnson’s times in the workouts?
JW: Earlier in the season, my quarter, I was running all strength, because every workout I did, I was doing a lot of strength. My speed wasn’t there yet, like it was last year at the beginning of the season. So the 200 this year had been trying to get me back to where I was speedwise. I had built up a lot of strength this year, more than I did last year…. The workouts, Coach Hart just brought out of nowhere. I didn’t even ask him about them. He just wanted to show me the things that Michael was doing seven days prior to the World Championships in ‘99. We were basically doing almost the exact same thing Michael was at the time, timewise and restwise…. We were right there with it. There’s a chance (of the record), if the conditions are right. He says you’re going to run faster no matter what. It’s a competition, and you know that. And of course, the track (in Osaka) is a lot faster and you’ve run on it before, so if everything’s falling into place, there’s a chance you can go get it. My workouts have been getting better. I’m stronger, I’m quicker. My speed endurance is there. And the dedication; this year, I know it’s a big year. I’m trying to defend my World title. At the same time, I know I can get the world record, especially with the way I ran in Stockholm.

Why wait until this Wednesday to leave for Osaka? Isn’t most of the team already over there.
JW: There’s no reason for me to be over there that early. I don’t run till next Tuesday. We wanted to stay here and get good training in before we actually go out there. That’s really the main reason, to get my training in at home, rest up, and then get out there when I really need to go out there.

Do you think, if you run the race that you’re capable of, that anyone can beat you. Certainly, the U.S. runners are predominant in this event, but realistically, what chance do they have to beat you?
JW: Well, if I run my race like I have been, like I did in Stockholm, and like I have in the past year, they’re not going to beat me. If I slip up, then yes, they’ll beat me. But the way I ran in Stockholm, coming off of that race, knowing the confidence I have right now, knowing how easy that 43.5 felt, I can go faster. I know I can, especially on Osaka’s track. I’m not going to get beat unless I don’t run my race…. If I run like that at Worlds, there’s no telling what’s going to happen.

Did the 43.50 at Stockholm surprise you at all?
JW: Not really. Going into the meet, I had talked with my manager, Deon Minor, and I had told him before the race that I had a feeling something crazy was about to happen in the race. I could feel it - the way I warmed up and everything, how my body felt - I knew I was about to run something good. I didn’t know exactly what time it would been. I knew it was going to be in the 43s, but I didn’t know it was going to be 43.5, so that kind of surprised me.

At what point were you able to almost casually talk about Michael’s records and feel comfortable with it? For a long time, that most have seemed almost unattainable. At what time did it start to seem realistic for you?
JW: A little bit last year, when I ran more than one 43 in the season. Once you do that, they start getting a little bit easier. Your body knows what it feels like to go through that. So last year, after I ran in Paris and Rome, I was like "well, there’s a chance I can go for it, but I didn’t know when it was going to happen …. But this year, the way I’ve been training, and the way I’ve been running my meets, I kind of feel there’s a chance it could happen this year, especially after Stockholm. I now really think it can, easily (considering) how fast Osaka’s track was when I ran on it back in May. Each year, I could say, has been getting a little more easy to talk about it.

A lot of people are talking about an American sweep of the 400 in Osaka as if it’s a foregone inclusion. Are you expecting an American sweep of the medals in this event?
JW: Yeah, I think so. I’m thinking we can Lashawn (Merritt) has been running consistent times in the low 44s. Angelo (Taylor) has run a lot of consistent 44s. I know Merritt is real hungry right now to try and beat me. We’re all going to go out there and hopefully run our own races. There’s a big chance that we can do it. You see the times being run this year and (Lionel) Larry ran 44.2 at London.

Do you see any chance of a world record in the 4x400 in Osaka?
JW: Definitely. I actually talked to Darold (Williamson, his training mate and former Baylor teammate) about it a few times and Coach Hart and we’ve all agreed if we run the right order, I think the world record can be broken easily. We have so much talent and so much depth in the 4x400. We could throw anybody on there and win. But if we throw the four right people on there, we can get the world record.

Can you remember where you were when Michael broke the world record in the 400 in 1999? Did you watch it live? Did you remember seeing?
JW: I didn’t know nothing about track and field then. I didn’t start running; 2000 was my first year running track. I didn’t see it until last year when Michael gave me a tape. I didn’t have a reaction. I was speechless, just the way his last hundred was in that race was amazing. And Coach Hart says I’m right there with him for my last hundred. My last 200 was faster than him (Johnson) when he ran the world record, but going from the 200 to the 300 is where his was faster right now.