Sport
London 2012: Kirani James wins Grenada’s first ever gold medal in 400 meters
For years, James has been living in the shadow of Merritt. Even when James beat him last summer at the world championships, the win came with a caveat: Merritt wasn’t at his best because he was just coming off a doping suspension.
The showdown never happened.
With Merritt on the sideline, James had no one to really push him. Well, except the clock as he beat his nearest competitor, Luguelin Santos of the Dominican Republic, by 0.52 seconds. Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago got the bronze.
A letdown that Merritt wasn’t in the field?
“Kirani respects the heck out of LaShawn. Unfortunately, when you get to the games like this, these are the kinds of things that happen,” said Harvey Glance, who coaches James. “Would Kirani have liked to have competed against him? I’m sure he would, because he’s a competitor. Did it make the job a little easier? Of course it did.
“For a 19-year-old to have all the pressure of the world on his shoulder and do this? We’ve talked about this for the last two years and he saw the big picture and he came out and delivered.”
In a convincing way, too.
