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Spearmon blisters the track in Daegu
Wallace Spearmon became the third-fastest 200m runner in history Thursday with his impressive win in front of nearly 50,000 spectators at the 2006 Daegu International Meeting in Daegu, South Korea.
Spearmon's time of 19.65 seconds is the third fastest time in history, trailing only National Track & Field Hall of Famer Michael Johnson, who set the world record of 19.32 seconds in winning the gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and Xavier Carter, who ran 19.63 seconds on July 11, 2006 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Spearmon's performance takes over third place on the all-time performers list from his countryman Tyson Gay, who ran 19.68 seconds in Stuttgart on September 10, 2006. Namibia's Frank Fredericks also clocked 19.68 seconds in 1996.
Spearmon has really turned it on late in the season with times of 19.88 in Stuttgart on September 10, and an impressive meet record win at the IAAF World Cup in Athens when he stopped the clocks at 19.87 seconds.
Americans Spearmon, Carter and Gay teamed up to make the men's 200 meters one of the premier events to watch this outdoor season.
Another exciting event in Daegu was the men's 110m hurdles, where reigning Olympic champion Liu Xiang of China and 1996 Olympic gold medalist and four-time world champion Allen Johnson faced each other.
The 2006 World Cup champion over Xiang, Johnson got off to a far better start than his younger rival before Xiang found his rhythm and finally overtook Johnson at the finish, winning in 13.14 seconds. Johnson was the runner-up just two hundredths of a second behind.
For more information on the 2006 Daegu International Meeting, visit IAAF.org.
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