Posted: June 16, 2005

Athletics: Wallace Spearmon, Darold Williamson teleconference excerpts

USA Track & Field on Thursday hosted a national teleconference with 2005 NCAA Outdoor 200m champion and current men's 200m world-leader Wallace Spearmon and 2004 Olympic 4x400m relay gold medalist and 2005 NCAA 400m champion Darold Williamson. Both will compete at the 2005 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, June 23-26in Carson, California. The 2005 USA Outdoor Championships are the sixth and final stop of USA Track & Field's 2005 Outdoor Visa Championship Series.

Spearmon sprinted away from an outstanding field last weekend to defend his NCAA 200m men's title in a world-leading time of 19.91 seconds. Running with a sore right knee, Spearmon pulled ahead on the final turn and outran the competition before losing his balance and tumbling to the track after crossing the finish line. Spearmon's performance, along with his teammate Tyson Gay'sthird-place finish in that race (19.93), clinched the Razorbacks' 41st NCAA track or cross country championship under head coach John McDonnell. Spearmon's time eclisped Tyson Gay's 19.93 in Friday night's semifinals as the world's fastest 200m this year. Following his performance Spearmon announced that he would forego the remainder of his collegiate eligibility to pursue a career in professional track and field.

Spearmon, who set the U.S. men's indoor 200m record(20.10 seconds) in winning the 2005 NCAA Indoor title, posted the top-five indoor 200m times in the world this year.

Darold Williamson entered his senior at Baylor University this season as an Olympic 4x400m relay gold medalist and the 2002 World Junior 400m champion. Williamson ran the anchor leg (44.83 split) as Team USA won the gold medal at the Athens Olympics in (2:55.91). Williamson ended his collegiate career in style by winning the 2005 NCAA 400m title in the second-fastest time in the world this year of 44.51 seconds. Williamson posted the fastest time in the world this season in the NCAA semifinals in crossing the finish line in 44.27

An audio replay is also available

Below are excerpts from Thursday's teleconference.

USATF CEO Craig Masback Statement

We've had a great Visa Championship Series this year that featured some of the young athletes that emerged last spring and summer, who distinguished themselves at the Olympics. We've just had, in some views I think, the greatest NCAAs ever in terms of performances and in terms of great athletes under great scrutiny and pressure, demonstrated their abilities, some of whom will be featured in this teleconference, and in next week's national championships. To me it was a clear continuation of what began last year at the Olympic Trials where Jill Geer (USATF Director of Communications) said it best that 'the athletes really took over those Trials and took over the attention at those Trials from other off-track stories.' They went to Athens and surprised the world with the success that the team had and have continued to be impressive, not only on the track, but off the track with respect to the fact that most of them have stayed in school and finished their education, and have been active participants in our "BE A CHAMPION" program. I really just wanted to pay homage to these two great athletes who completed the chapter in their lives of their collegiate competitions and have done it with tremendous distinction and achievement, and I want to welcome to our part of the world, although Darold needs no welcome since he was already a part of our Olympic team last year, but to welcome them to USA Track & Field and their careers with USA Track & Field.

Darold Williamson

Q: Please bring us up to date on your season.

A: I'm pretty happy with my season thus far. I'm continuing to train hard and I was happy to go to Sacramento (NCAA Championships) and perform well. I popped that good time, that 44.27. I executed my race real well and I ran a pretty good leg on our relay. We didn't win, but I was happy with my performance. Now I'm back in Waco, where I've continued training and I'm looking forward to next week in Carson.

Q: How tough is it going to be to make the World Championships team in the 400 meters?

A: I don't know. I guess we all exploded this year. I guess we should've known it was coming. We swept the Olympics and there are a lot of great quarter-milers coming out of high school and being the country that we are we have plenty of people who could've run the rounds at the Olympics. I guess it was kind of expected by me to see all these athletes come out and perform well.

Q: Could you talk about your rivalry with Jeremy Wariner (2004 Olympic 400m gold medalist)?

A: We're great friends. We're pretty close together here in Waco and we train together and we're hanging out every day, not only on the track but we hang out in our spare time, his house, my house. Se we're really good friends and we have a good time. As far as the rivalry on the track, everybody wants to win but there can only be one winner obviously, so we'll hopefully continue to be good friends and leave that to our advantage. Hopefully we'll continue to push each other with our weaknesses and strengths.

Q: How has winning the gold medals changed the lives of you and Jeremy?

A: His life trained completely. He went professional and passed his last years at Baylor and did a lot of traveling. My life hasn't changed too much, though it probably will now that I've entered the professional scene going into next weekend. I came back to Waco and went back to class and competed this year for Baylor. As far as my recognition, people are recognizing me more in public, and maybe that's changed, but my lifestyle hasn't changed.

Q: How tough is it to compete so often collegiately and now to run in the outdoor championships and having to peak so many times for conference championships, regionals, NCAAs and now the national championships?

A: I think it's good to have some good competition before USAs. A lot of people think collegians will be burned out or tired, but coach Hart (Clyde Hart) when he runs me in my collegiate track meets also looks down the road at my summer to see that I don't run too much and get overworked and I use that to my advantage, especially those rounds at the national championships (NCAAs) last week was almost a mock of what I can look for next week and that will be to my advantage.

Wallace Spearmon

Q: After last weekend's world-leading performance, how confident are you going in to next week's Championships?

A: It was a great confidence booster. My teammate Tyson Gay took the lead from me in the semis when he ran 19.93 and I had to come back in the finals. I was tempted to try to get it in the semis but I figured I'd wait to the last go-around and that's where I let it all out. Going into USA's, last year I had a pretty bad experience. I wouldn't say I was as fortunate as Darold, I didn't make the finals in racing Justin Gatlin and Shawn Crawford, and big names like that. So this year I'm just hoping to make it to the finals. I'd love to make the team with better results than last year.

Q: How hard do think it's going to be for you next week?

A: Coach (Lance) Brauman has been training us, and most people try to peak for SECs and Regionals, and we train through them because Coach Brauman is looking at the bigger picture with Nationals and the Trials. I'm not going to say it's going to be too much harder than the finals of the 200, where we had the first and third fastest times in the world this year. The competition should be about equal and I think I'll be ready.

Q: How do you feel about your generation refreshing the sport after what happened with some of the people that came before you?

A: It's unfortunate what happened to the people before, but most of us are pretty young and haven't really been involved with all the scandals or anything else. This is a great responsibility to be in charge and carry the torch of track and field. Most of us look forward to that and accept it as their duty.

Q: Why do you think there's been such a wave of talented newcomers in the last couple years in track and field? Did you consider other sports when you were younger?

A: I played all the other sports and track was my last option. Track kind of chose me. In competition when someone steps up others usually follow. Everyone wants to be on top and the young people don't see any reason why they can't be there. So they just run as fast as they need to not knowing what they're doing and that's extremely special.

Q: How much does experience matter in trying to qualify for a world championships or Olympic team.

A: Pressure is something I enjoy because it gives you a chance to prove yourself through hard times. Experience-wise I made the mistake of setting a PR in the first round and from there on it was downhill, and that was a hard way to learn how to run rounds. This year at NCAAs helped as well, so I think I have a good chance of making it through the rounds because I have a lot of experience.

For more information on the 2005 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships and the Visa Championship Series, visit USATF.org.