EUGENE, Ore. — Justin Gatlin paid no attention to the Jamaican Olympic Trials on Friday night, until he received a text message from a friend.
That’s how Gatlin learned that Usain Bolt scratched before the 100m final in Kingston due to a grade-one hamstring tear.
Gatlin’s response? You’re lying.
“Get a text out of nowhere saying that, it’s like April Fool’s,” Gatlin said. “Like, let me check the calendar real quick.”
Gatlin, the primary rival to Bolt since the 2012 Olympics, had no problem at his Olympic Trials on Saturday afternoon. He won his 100m first-round heat in 10.03 seconds. The semifinals and final are Sunday (7:30 p.m., NBCSN and NBC Sports app).
Though Gatlin has been slower this spring than his torrid pace of 2015, he obviously stands to benefit if Bolt is less than 100 percent at the Rio Olympics in one month. Assuming Bolt is named to the Jamaican team, which is expected but still complicated.
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Gatlin is the only man to beat Bolt in the last four years in a 100m or 200m (once, by .01, in June 2013).
He was favored to hand the Jamaican defeat at the 2015 World Championships, until Gatlin uncharacteristically lost his signature running form in the final strides of the 100m final and lost by .01.
Since, the 34-year-old Gatlin has downshifted, partially due to a serious offseason ankle injury. His best wind-legal 100m time so far this season is 9.93 seconds. At this same point last year, Gatlin had already clocked 9.74 and 9.75.
Bolt, meanwhile, ran 9.88 on June 11, his fastest time this early in a year since 2012. He was looking like a far stronger favorite for Olympic gold than in 2012, until Friday night happened.
Gatlin isn’t yet looking at Bolt’s setback as an equalizer. The key date is July 22, when Bolt is next scheduled to race and prove he deserves an Olympic berth.
“Maybe if I was a rookie, I would have thought I hit the lotto,” Gatlin joked. “Right now I’m just worried about beating a United States field.”
That field includes Trayvon Bromell, the 20-year-old co-world bronze medalist in the 100m from last year. Bromell had the fastest time of everybody on Saturday, taking his heat in 9.94 seconds. It was his first race since suffering a grade-one Achilles tear one month ago.
Bromell shares an agent with Bolt. He refused to speculate if a victory over a less-than-100-percent Bolt would mean any less than one over a fully fit world’s fastest man.
“I don’t look at anything like that,” Bromell said. “We all have the same dreams. You just want to make it to that level.”
Bolt has been injured going into global championships before. In 2004, he made his Olympic debut at age 17 as a medal contender but was eliminated in the first round, slowed by a hamstring injury. In 2012, he pulled out of his last meet before the Olympics citing a back injury.
“It’s a tradition,” Bolt’s former top rival, Tyson Gay, joked after advancing Saturday.
One man who knows what it’s like to race a doubted Bolt is Mike Rodgers. Rodgers came within .03 of Bolt at a meet in London on July 24 of last year, when Bolt showed medal-worthy form for the first time since 2013.
Rodgers deemed it fair that Bolt can be named to the Jamaican Olympic team without earning his place at Trials. But he didn’t agree with it.
“I feel like it’s a cop out,” said Rodgers, who is 0-16 in his career in individual races against Bolt, according to Tilastopaja.org. “He should run just like everybody else. But at the end of the day, he’s Bolt. … It’s fair. He’s the man. You can do what you want to do. It’s like Jordan. He’s the man. LeBron’s the man. So you know how that go.”
One track superstar who gets no such second chance is Allyson Felix, racing with a significantly painful ankle injury at Trials this week. The owner of 19 Olympic/world medals fought through it for a second straight day Saturday, advancing to the 400m final Sunday.
She has four more races left in Eugene, and she has to contest all of them if she wants to make the Olympic team in the 400m and 200m.
“If I could have another month, that would be ideal,” Felix said. “That’s not how it goes here in America, so just keep fighting.”
MORE: Russian Olympic boss takes swipe at Justin Gatlin, Tyson Gay
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