Monty goes fast foward as ‘Slo Mo’ pauses in freeze frame

While the soon to be retired Colin Jackson believes his 110m hurdles world record will stand for ever Tim Montgomery holds quite the opposit...

While the soon to be retired Colin Jackson believes his 110m hurdles world record will stand for ever Tim Montgomery holds quite the opposite view on his 100m mark.

Whether that remains the case or not his performance in Paris meant this season went from a damp squib to ending with a bang.


New-kid-on-blocks Tim Montgomery vs old guard Maurice Green

The 27-year-old’s record of 9.78 sec in the Grand Prix finals lit up a season when the only other world record was set by Morocco’s Brahim Boulami in the steeplechase and that was to last all of a couple of weeks as he was to be stripped of it following a positive dope test. However, Montgomery and Britain’s Dwain Chambers had at last pierced the invincible aura surrounding previous world record holder Maurice Greene which had held since he won the first of his three world titles in 1997.

Despite this the self styled ‘Kansas Comet’ like any great champion still appeared to be supremely confident that come the World Championships next year he would restore order to the blue riband event of the track.

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“I will be back,” he intoned with the same menace that Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the first Terminator film. Perhaps but a sequence of fifths and sixths ended with him pulling out of the Grand Prix finals and had to sit and watch from the stands as Montgomery, twice a world medallist behind Greene, lowered his mark.

Even Montgomery, who could have been lost to athletics had his mother not persuaded him to give up grid iron after breaking his arm at school, admitted Greene was not a spent force but others were not so sure.

Having gone into the 2000 Olympics the undisputed heavyweight camp of athletics two years has seen a steady decline and with Montgomery’s coach Trevor Graham also holding the women’s event to ransom with Marion Jones – also Montgomery’s girlfriend – a real changing of the guard from California to Carolina seems to have taken place.

Montgomery has proved that the guard has really changed. To ditch his slightly unfair ‘Slo Mo’ tag, Green will have to come back out running from his corner like a truly great heavyweight and reproduce the equivalent of Muhammad Ali’s ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ performance against George Foreman in Paris next year if his and Smith’s mantle is not to be torn apart entirely.

It should be worth waiting for.