BBC SPORT | Athletics | Cram: Montgomery shocked us all



By Steve Cram BBC Sport

Tim Montgomery's new 100m world record came as a whopping shock to all of us.

No-one expected this.

Montgomery has talked about his own ability, but this was the first time he's made a real impact.

There was absolute shock in the stadium

Steve Cram

Until now, he's run well in championships and individual meets, but he's always been beaten by Maurice Greene when it mattered.

It's not always obvious, watching a 100m live, when the time is a really fast one.

You tend to judge the performance from the various positions of the athletes - so that if one man is way out in front of a class field, you know he's running something special.

As this race was unfolding, Montgomery, Dwain Chambers and Jon Drummond were all close - but that was because they were all running super-quick times.

There was absolute shock in the stadium. Everyone was looking round to see if there had been a mistake.

Standing next to us in the commentary box were Maurice Greene, his coach Jon Smith and his agent Emmanuel Hudson.

Tim Montgomery celebrates his world record
Montgomery celebrates in Paris
They were dumbfounded by what they'd seen, and that was the reaction all the way round the stands.

The only other 100m world record I've witnessed in the flesh was Donovan Bailey's at the 1996 Olympics, and with that one everyone knew what he had done as soon as he crossed the line.

But this was in Charlety, with about 5,000 people watching - and it's September.

All the guys are tired; the last few Grand Prix races had given us no clue of what was to come.

Maybe Montgomery upped his game because he wanted to beat Dwain and get the US$50,000 prize for topping the rankings.

Until now, he hasn't been in the same class pay-wise as Greene, so that extra motivation was there.

Dwain on the up, Mo struggling

As for Dwain - I don't think he had the faintest idea he was going that well. He almost seemed to ease up as he approached the line.

He was disappointed to lose to Tim, and disappointed not to break Linford Christie's British and European record.

But this has been a wonderful season for him. He's destroyed his old personal best and won his first major title.

He knows Montgomery won't run this fast every time, and that he himself is now consistently going quick enough to win a world or Olympic title.

The one who'll be most worried is Maurice Greene. Imagine if he had run on Saturday.

He would have trailed in third or fourth in a race that saw him lose his world record.

He now has a real problem. He'll come back and win races again, but his era of domination is well and truly over.


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