Jerome Young ran a very evenly paced race in the 400 metres final - and that was the secret to his victory.
 Young ran a tactically excellent race |
The athlete who holds their form over the last 60 or 70 metres, when the lactic acid sets in, is normally the one who wins. In contrast, Tyree Washington kept his foot on the gas the entire way. You just can't do that and expect to come out on top.
I thought Washington would win in Paris and then go on to dominate the event in the years to come.
He has the raw talent and has shown he is capable of running fast times consistently.
Unfortunately, he had to settle for silver on this occasion.
Marc Raquil showed uncut, unadulterated strength to take bronze, which had French crowd going wild for their man.
People have asked me if he was under the same pressure as I was in 1996, when the Olympics were held in Atlanta.
Our situations were very different. For one thing, I was already established as a 400m runner in 1996 while Raquil is still finding his way.
 Raquil's late surge gave him bronze |
The pressure that I was under was to make good on what I said I was going to do. I had drawn a lot of attention to myself by saying I was going to complete the 200m and 400m double. Raquil should not have felt any pressure because no-one in the crowd should have expected him to get a medal.
He ran a personal best of 44.8secs earlier this year - a national record - but four guys in the semi-final ran faster than that.
Raquil was in one of the best positions of all in the final.
He was at home, the crowd support for him was incredible and he had nothing to lose.
MMIX
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