Athletics: Greene philosophical as Montgomery zooms into frame

It was late Friday afternoon in the Sofitel Rive Gauche, the athletes' hotel for the IAAF Grand Prix final to be held in the Stade Charlety the following day.

In a quiet corner of the second floor, a smiling American was talking in a soft South Carolina drawl about the quest to become the fastest man of all time.

"To me," he said, "Maurice Greene is the greatest sprinter to touch the surface of the earth and run in a straight line ... But maybe it's the changing of the guard."

It only took 9.78 seconds, but on the Charlety track on the south side of Paris 24 hours later the guard did indeed change. In a sudden flash, it was Tim Montgomery himself, not Greene, who was the fastest human being on earth.

At the Grand Prix meeting in Athens three years ago Greene ran the 100m in 9.79s, matching the landmark time Ben Johnson set with the assistance of Stanozolol, an anabolic steroid, at the Seoul Olympics in 1988. In Paris, Montgomery ran faster than them both, pushing the human speed limit forward another small but significant notch.

It was difficult to gauge who was the most surprised in the half-empty 25,000-seat stadium: Montgomery, who was too busy celebrating his emphatic victory over Dwain Chambers to notice the time on the trackside clock; Chambers, who had lined up confident of establishing himself as the world No 1; or poor Greene, watching helplessly from the main stand while his world record was taken from him. To his credit, Greene accepted the new order with magnanimity.

"It's only good for the sport," he said. "It means next year will be even more interesting. I've never been more eager to get over a vacation and start training again."

Even Montgomery, in his hour of triumph, could not help casting his mind forward to next year - when the world championship title Greene has held since 1997 will be on the line in Paris.

"I feel next year, at the world championships, you're going to see the greatest running you've ever seen in your life," he said.

"I'm sure Dwain is going to step up his game too, and my confidence level is high, because I really didn't do that much training this year. It wasn't a 100 per cent year for Tim Montgomery. I didn't have a championship to prepare for. I'm going to be stronger next year."

The present track season has been a great one for Chambers. At 24, he has equalled the lifetime best Christie set as a 33-year-old when winning the world title in Stuttgart in 1993. Not that his spirits were greatly lifted by his own record run.

The young Londoner was too deeply stung by his failure to stay with Montgomery, who pulled inexorably clear from just before the half-way mark in his smooth, loose-limbed sprinting style.

The British team captain now has to raise his spirits for the season's finale at the World Cup in Madrid, where he faces Montgomery again early tomorrow. For his part Montgomery intends "to relax and enjoy it", satisfied he's fulfilled the high speed potential he showed when he ran 9.96s as a 19-year-old, when he was denied a world junior record because the track, in Odessa, Texas, was found to be 3.7 centimetres short.

At 27, Montgomery has been gaining ground on Greene, and on Greene's record, since he switched coaches at the end of the 1999 season. Trevor Graham has made Marion Jones the world's fastest living woman and last Saturday Montgomery became the fastest man in history.

And all because of a lucky break.

Montgomery had his heart set on a career in American football until he fractured an arm in a high school game.

His mother, concerned for his safety, urged him to become a sprinter instead.

- INDEPENDENT