Gay takes express lane in 9.68 seconds

EUGENE, Ore. -- There has been little doubt for a long while now that Tyson Gay can run like the wind.

With the wind along for the ride, Gay ran like no other human being Sunday.

And if that performance must go into the history books with more asterisks and other cryptic symbols than the Da Vinci Code, it still doesn't diminish the most significant thing Gay did the last two days at the U.S. Olympic trials:

Get on the 2008 Olympic team by surviving four rounds and then winning the 100-meter final in a wind-aided time of 9.68 seconds, faster than anyone has covered the distance.

And if you thought winning was a foregone conclusion for reigning world champion Gay, easily the fastest sprinter in the nation the last two seasons, you didn't see what happened in Saturday's first round, when he eased up too soon and had to scramble back into high gear to ensure advancing to the quarterfinals.

"I almost started crying when I crossed the finish line because I thought I didn't make it," Gay said.

He would make his first Olympics with a U.S. record run -- 9.77 seconds -- in the quarterfinals and an impressive dominance of the semifinal and the final, when he left Walter Dix (9.80) and Darvis Patton (9.84) far behind as they earned the other two 100-meter spots for Beijing.

"Everything here was about winning and beating people, nothing to do with times," said Jon Drummond, Gay's coach. "This year is about that Olympic gold medal."

So Drummond wanted Gay to apply the brakes -- not cut the motor -- in the first two rounds.

"Hindsight, I would have said, 'Run through the finish line [in the quarterfinals], we get the world record,' " Drummond said. "He didn't, we still got the American record."

Gay did not break the world record (9.72) Sunday because the tailwind, 9.1 mph, was well above the allowable 4.4 for record purposes. A chart used to determine the impact of tailwinds translates Gay's 9.68 to a 9.86 under calm conditions and 9.78 with a wind at the allowable maximum.

In 1996, Obadele Thompson of Barbados ran 9.69 with an 11-mph tailwind.

"Regardless of what the wind was, it was a very historic moment," Olympic sprint coach Harvey Glance said of Gay's run.

"It means a lot," Gay said. "I'm pretty sure people are going to start stepping down into that (9.6) area, but I'm glad my body went that fast, because I believe with a [legal] wind I can do it."