Sprint king Greene gets flying start to season

Stuart Grudgings

Sprinter Maurice Greene sounded an early warning to his rivals on Saturday, clocking the fastest 100 metres of the year and brushing aside a grand prix field with ominous ease.

Greene, the Olympic champion and world record holder, romped away to win the Osaka grand prix event in Japan in 9.96 seconds in a repeat of his early-season victory here last year.

The American star went on from that win to strike gold twice at the Sydney Olympics and is hoping that Osaka can provide a similar platform for glory in the world championships in Edmonton, Canada, this August.

"I ran the best race I could. I knew it was going to be tough because I've been training with Bernard Williams and I knew that he was going to come out here and push me down the track," Greene said.

"I want this season to be better than last. I want to take it from here and break my world record."

But if the second-placed Williams did any pushing, it was from a long way behind Greene who was deprived of a real test by the late withdrawal of Sydney bronze medallist Obadele Thompson of Barbados.

Greene said his aim for this season, besides breaking his own world record of 9.79 seconds, was to go one better than his Olympic haul of two golds in Edmonton by taking the 200 metres title as well as the shorter sprint and the 4x100 metres relay.

The 200 metres was the only real blemish on Greene's golden season last year after a dramatic injury in the U.S. Olympic trials ruled him out of a triple in Sydney.

AIMING FOR GREATNESS

Greene's stated goal is to be ranked above American sprinting greats such as Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens but to do that he may first have to extend his dominance to another event.

"I want to run a lot faster than I have, I want to compete at a higher level than I've been competing at and just make the overall season better. I believe my toughest rival is myself."

Greene is aiming for a world mark of 9.76 seconds this year but says his coach believes he can go as fast as 9.60.

There were few outstanding performances in the other grand prix events, with many top athletes looking rusty as they picked themselves up from the Olympics and began to prepare for the world championships.

Kenya's Bernard Lagat, winner of the 1500 metres bronze at the Sydney Olympics, suffered a surprise defeat by Canada's Kevin Sullivan, who bravely held off the Kenyan down the home straight.

But Sullivan's winning time of 3:38.42 was nothing special.

Japanese fans had reason to cheer when local hero Koji Murofushi won the men's hammer with a mammoth throw of 82.59 metres, beating Olympic gold medallist Szymon Ziolkowski of Poland into second place.

In the women's events, Sri Lankan Susanthika Jayasinghe doubled up with victories in the 100 and 200 metres.