UNITED KINGDOM: OLYMPICS - Track gold medalists Maurice Greene and Ed Moses are among Olympic legends predicting Yohan Blake will triumph over his team-mate Usain Bolt in the biggest race of the London Games

Record ID: 331193

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: OLYMPICS - Track gold medalists Maurice Greene and Ed Moses are among Olympic legends predicting Yohan Blake will triumph over his team-mate Usain Bolt in the biggest race of the London Games
  • Date: 29th July 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 29, 2012) (REUTERS) FORMER OLYMPIC 100 METRES CHAMPION MAURICE GREENE ARRIVING TO TAKE PART IN 'OLYMPIC LEGENDS' NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAURICE GREENE, FORMER OLYMPIC 100M CHAMPION, SAYING; (Presenter: 'It's going to be the most talked about race of the Olympics, who is going to win?') "Blake is going to win... Blake is going to win." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (English) EDWIN MOSES, FORMER OLYMPIC 400M HURDLES CHAMPION, SAYING "In track and field we have a saying, 'stuff happens', and you're only as good as your last race. I hate to not vote for Bolt, but I'm not sure the cards are in his favour, I'm going to say Blake too, I think he's the man to beat right now." VIEW OF NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) EDWIN MOSES, FORMER OLYMPIC 400M HURDLES CHAMPION, SAYING "You can't stay on top all the time, you have to kind of let off. Last year was not.. well, Bolt ran some very good times last year, but it wasn't like 2011, definitely like 2008, so he's had to completely regroup, and when you do that you really start from zero, build back up, it's hard to tell what will happen. I know that he can't afford to make any mistakes. I think that in the 100 and the 200 you've got a bunch of guys who can get out of the blocks, they're going to get out of the blocks because they know they have no choice. They're not going to win if they don't, and the only way is to get out, try to put pressure on him early and see what happens." PANEL OF OLYMPIC LEGENDS LISTENING TO QUESTION (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAURICE GREENE, FORMER OLYMPIC 100M CHAMPION, SAYING "The pressures of coming back to an Olympic Games? It's very tough. Especially when you're trying to duplicate what you did four years ago. But I would say to that fact, don't think about what you did four years ago, only think about what you're trying to do now, what you've been working on all this year to do. You have to focus on this, you can't think in the past." PANEL OF OLYMPIC LEGENDS (SOUNDBITE) (English) MAURICE GREENE, FORMER OLYMPIC 100M CHAMPION, SAYING "After you do something so big, you are on such a high. Then it becomes... You're still there. And you're not thinking about the next four years, and a lot of other things come to you so a lot of your training and everything else gets put on the back-burner. And then, as the time gets closer, now you have to really get back into that mode, sometimes you just can't make it back there." VIEW OF OLYMPIC LEGENDS PANEL (SOUNDBITE) (English) DALEY THOMPSON, FORMER OLYMPIC DECATHLON CHAMPION, SAYING "Obviously, I'm glad all those people have been caught, because it's obviously completely unfair to the people out here trying their best and having their own personal glory taken away by people who are taking drugs. So I have been critical of WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] in the past because I didn't think they were fit for purpose, but obviously they're catching a few more people and that's great. But I think for them that should only be the start of it. I think they should be much harder, much stricter, catch a lot more people." VIEW OF NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) DALEY THOMPSON, FORMER OLYMPIC DECATHLON CHAMPION, SAYING "Obviously, we'd all like full stadiums but I understand the places where they weren't filled it was because of accredited athletes, accredited coaches and all that, but I'm sure LOCOG wants to fill it. This morning they were talking about if there were going to be some empty seats they might go to some students and teachers and members of the armed forces, so I'm sure they'll look after it." END OF NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 13th August 2012 13:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA7HKTQ592FK2B583XGU4H45MCU
  • Story Text: Former Olympic 100m champion Maurice Greene backed Jamaican Yohan Blake on Sunday (July 29) to beat team-mate Usain Bolt in the most anticipated race of the London Games.
    Greene, a former world record holder who won the gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, joined a panel of Olympic 'legends' to give their predictions, and had no hesitation in delivering his on the 100m.
    "Blake is going to win," he said. Edwin Moses, twice Olympic 400m hurdles champion, agreed.
    "In track and field we have a saying, 'stuff happens', and you're only as good as your last race. I hate to not vote for Bolt, but I'm not sure the cards are in his favour, I'm going to say Blake too, I think he's the man to beat right now," said Moses.
    The former hurdles champion, also a former world record holder, said Bolt was struggling to regain the form he had coming into the Beijing Games four years ago.
    "You can't stay on top all the time, you have to kind of let off. Last year was not.. well, Bolt ran some very good times last year, but it wasn't like 2011, definitely like 2008, so he's had to completely regroup, and when you do that you really start from zero, build back up, it's hard to tell what will happen. I know that he can't afford to make any mistakes," said Moses.
    Greene, who correctly predicted Blake would win last year's 100m world championship in which Bolt false-started, said Bolt faced a particular challenge in seeking to retain his Olympic title.
    "The pressures of coming back to an Olympic Games? It's very tough," said Greene. "Especially when you're trying to duplicate what you did four years ago. But I would say to that fact, don't think about what you did four years ago, only think about what you're trying to do now, what you've been working on all this year to do. You have to focus on this, you can't think in the past."
    In the pool, Ryan Lochte has already ended an era of dominance by the other great star from Beijing, Michael Phelps. A sluggish performance by Bolt in last month's Jamaican Olympic trials - by his standards at least - has led many to predict a similar outcome for the superstar of the track.
    "After you do something so big, you are on such a high. Then it becomes... You're still there. And you're not thinking about the next four years, and a lot of other things come to you so a lot of your training and everything else gets put on the back-burner. And then, as the time gets closer, now you have to really get back into that mode, sometimes you just can't make it back there," said Greene.
    Appearing alongside Greene on Sunday was twice Olympic decathlon champion Daley Thompson, who backed more stringent efforts to uncover doping at the Games, but urged even tougher measures.
    The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said this week its screening programme had involved more than 70,000 tests over the last six months.
    "Obviously, I'm glad all those people have been caught, because it's obviously completely unfair to the people out here trying their best and having their own personal glory taken away by people who are taking drugs. So I have been critical of WADA in the past because I didn't think they were fit for purpose, but obviously they're catching a few more people and that's great. But I think for them that should only be the start of it. I think they should be much harder, much stricter, catch a lot more people," said Thompson.
    He also expressed his confidence that Olympic organisers were tackling the issue of empty seats during events.
    "Obviously, we'd all like full stadiums but I understand the places where they weren't filled it was because of accredited athletes, accredited coaches and all that, but I'm sure LOCOG wants to fill it. This morning they were talking about if there were going to be some empty seats they might go to some students and teachers and members of the armed forces, so I'm sure they'll look after it," said Thompson.
    Olympic organisers launched an urgent inquiry into the seating fiasco to nail down precisely who had not taken up their places and why.
    London organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe told reporters he thought the problem would resolve itself over time.
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