The Clutch King James

by Elliott Denman

BOSTON, MA, February 5, 2012 - "Granada, we're falling under your spell… What a fascinating tale you can tell… Entranced by a land full of flowers and song… Soon it will welcome the stars while a thousand guitars play a soft Habanera…"

Oh-oh. Sorry.

Check that.

That’s Granada, and we’re talking Grenada.

But still, no reason to call the whole thing off.

The Sinatra-famed tune is not actually the national anthem of the Caribbean island of Grenada, located due northwest of Trinidad, and home of just 110,000, one of them the world 400-meter champion Kirani James.

But maybe it should be.

In Korea, late last August, Daegu Stadium-goers certainly fell under his spell. What a fascinating tale he told, entrancing to those right there in the big stadium as well as those back home in his island nation full of, yes, flowers and song.

On his return from the Daegu, scene of his dazzling PB 44.60 gold medal upset of world defender and reigning Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt, the new one-lap ruler of the track and field universe surely rated a welcome by a band of a thousand guitars.

Kirani James, who celebrated his 19th birthday two days after his run for the gold, obviously opened many-many sets of eyes in Korea. He clearly represents his event's future — maybe until Usain Bolt decides to give a serious try.

James continued opening eyes with his sizzling 45.96 triumph in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix Meet Saturday night at the Reggie Lewis Center.

James won the race decisively over American Josh Scott (46.54), Trinidad's Renny Quow (46.70) and Tabarie Henry of the the Virgin Islands (46.88.)  His 45.96 was the fastest in the world thus far into the indoor season.

He got out to a blazing start, led clearly at the "break-in" point and won it going away.

James is so young and fast and strong that track and field cognoscenti are already declaring America's stranglehold on the men's Olympic 400 meters destined to reach a shattering close at this summer's London Olympic Games.

Once upon a time, USA virtually "owned" some men's individual Olympic racing events.

Perfect examples: five straight 100 and 200-meter wins, 1932-56; four more in the 200, 1984-96; four straight twice in the 800, 1904-12 and 1936-56; six in a row in the 110 high hurdles, 1896-1912, then nine straight, 1932-72; five in a row in the 400 hurdles, after five straight from 1900-24.

But the longest active USA win streak on the track — seven in succession — can be found in the 400.

There was Merritt in 2008, Jeremy Wariner in 2004, Michael Johnson in 1996 and 2000, Quincy Watts in 1992, Steve Lewis in 1988 and Alonzo Babers in 1984. Not only that, USA teammates collected five silver and four bronze medals back of those seven winners.

The last non-American to take the men's 400 was Viktor Markin of Russia, winner at the 1980 Moscow Games that the U.S. skipped.

James' rollcall of top honors already includes World Junior, NCAA and World Senior crowns. He'll be very tough to beat at the upcoming World Indoor Championships, March 11-12 in Istanbul. Turkey. And then it will be on to selected outdoor meets culminating in the London Games where he'll still be a teen-ager. Not since 19-year-old Steve Lewis's win at Seoul in 1988 has a "kid" won the Olympic one-lapper.

So, look out world, number two is on the horizon. Kirani James won't be 20 until Sept. 1, two weeks after London's Closing Ceremonies.

"Considering this was my first indoor meet of the year, I have to be happy with winning here in pretty good time," said James. "I feel a lot stronger than in the past. I've put in a lot of work in the weight room, not done all that much on the track.  To open the season running 45.96, I guess that's pretty good."

In "pretty good" form, too, is pole vaulter Jenn Suhr.

The celebrated New York Stater, out of Fredonia High School and Roberts Wesleyan College, not only won at Boston with an American-record clearance of 16 feet (on first attempt) but went on to attack the world record of 16-4 3/4 set by Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva in 2009.

With the bar set at 16-5 1/4. Suhr took one dash down the runway, went up, but not over.

She wasn't talking about it afterward, however. An aching left Achilles tendon again proved troublesome and she skipped both her final two attempts and the usual meet-the-press session in the mixed zone.

It remains to be seen how badly that Achilles tendon is hurting.

Her many fans certainly hope it's a minor thing.  If she stays healthy, Suhr — ranked number one in the world for 2011 — would have a solid chance of ending the two-Games (2004-08) Olympic rule of Isinbayeva and bring the vault crown, won at Sydney by Stacy Dragila in the event's Olympic inaugural, back to the U.S.

Jillian Schwartz, who'd represented the U.S. in the 2004 Olympics and now competes for Israel, settled for a second place tie in this one after winning the U.S. Open in New York last week. She shared the second spot with American Lacy Janson.

New Balance Grand Prix meet director Mark Wetmore annually prides himself on the globalism of his event. And the 2012 edition was no exception.

Ethiopian stars dominated the women's distance races — curiously staged at the virtually-similar 3,000 meters and two miles — apparently to avoid any direct confrontation and damage either runner's ego. So, little more than an hour after Meseret Defar won the 3,000 in 8:33.57, Tirunesh Dibaba claimed the two-mile in 9:18.63.

There was golden Boston glory, too, for the delegates of Ireland, Morocco, Ivory Coast and Kenya.

Florida State grad Ciaran O'Lionaird of Ireland took the men's mile in 3:56.10, over Canada's Taylor Milne (3:56.40) and American Galen Rupp (3:57.10) But the real story of this mile was Mo Farah's 3:57.92 in fourth place.  

Less than a lap into the race, world 5,000-meter king Farah went down in a second-turn tripping episode, lost at least 15 meters, but got back up and still raced to a PR performance.

"I was kind of stunned when it happened," said Farah. "I just got back up as quickly as I could and started chasing everybody. To run that fast in a race like that, well I guess that's a pretty good sign of my fitness.  But that's track, things can happen."

Morocco's Btissam Lakhouad (2:38.14) fought off Cornell grad Morgan Uceny, the women's world 1,500-meter No. 1, to win at the rarely-staged one-kilometer distance.

Ivory Coast's Murielle Ahoure took the women's 60-meter sprint in 7.13 over Nigeria's Gloria Asumnu (7.20) and U.S.'s Lakya Bookins.

Kenyan Caleb Ndiku (7:38.29) fought off Ethiopia's Dejen Gebremskel (7:38.97) in a dazzling sprint-finish men's 3,000 meters, as Matthew Centrowitz, the American surprise bronze medalist of the Daegu 1,500 final, ran a 7:46.19 PR but settled for seventh place in his pro racing debut.

In addition to Suhr there were plenty of American winners.

USA 60-meter high hurdlers David Oliver (7.60) and Aries Merritt (7.62) went 1-2. Adam Nelson (69-9 1/2) and Cory Martin (67-0 3/4) took top spots in an abbreviated shot put competition.

Deedee Trotter sprinted to a 300-meter victory (37.07). And Maggie Vessey and Erica Moore ran a dramatic near-dead heat 800 (both clocked in 2:02.37), with Neptune, N.J. high schooler Ajee Wilson sixth in 2:07.37.

With the whole fields kitted out in identical all-black New Balance attire, it was hard to tell the winners in the boys and girls high school miles. They turned out to be (boys) Craig Engels of Pfafftown, N.C., in 4:13.70 and (girls) Haley Pierce of Wilmington, Del., in 4:48.59.