Wariner, J. - DNF

"I know it's cold, I know it's wet, I know it's Sheffield... And I know you'd probably rather not be here... but a slight stumble is no excuse for stopping."


Video of the men's 400 at Norwich Union Meet
(with extensive pre- and post-race commentary)

The weather in Sheffield, England was pretty awful on Sunday night, as the men lined up for the final event of the evening - the men's 400m. It was raining and it was cold. To make things worse, the runners were kept on the track for a few extra minutes to resolve a problem with the timing system caused by the rain.

In the field was defending world and Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner -- "the finest one-lap runner of his generation" -- as well as Olympic 400m hurdle champ Angelo Taylor, Wariner's former teammate from Baylor, Darrell Williamson, and five others. The slowest man in the field was Oscar Pistorius, relegated to lane 8.

At the starting gun, Wariner stumbled and then pulled up. Perhaps he expected a recall, perhaps he just didn't feel right and didn't want to injure himself six weeks before the World Championships. Whatever the reason, he stopped.

After the race, The British commentators were fairly rough on Wariner. They felt he should have given his best effort, regardless of the conditions. I find it strangely poignant that they acknowledged that it wasn't exactly the biggest meet in the world ("I know it's SHEFFIELD, And you'd probably rather not be here..."), but that didn't stop them from demanding more out of the Olympic champion.

For a runner, the three letters "DNF" are not typically happy ones. It's one thing to be a paid pace-setter, and drop out after you have done your job. Even people who don't have much use for paced races understand that a DNF in such circumstances is excusable. It's another thing entirely when you are the main attraction and, although uninjured, you fail to finish.

I don't want to judge Jeremy Wariner based on one DNF, but he is already being judged -- on an emotional level -- by many fans, certainly those who were sitting in the stands at Sheffield. Suddenly, they might not be rooting for him to break Michael Johnson's 400m WR. Suddenly, they might start hoping that someone upsets him in Osaka at the world championships.

It's hard to be a hero when you have "DNF" after your name.

And what of Pistorius? The rain seemed to affect him, too. He had a lousy start (He always starts slowly, but his start at Sheffield was particularly bad) and finished last in a poor time. He also ran the final turn awkwardly and was disqualified for running in Lane 7. The race did nothing to answer the two questions keeping the IAAF up at night: Are his prosthetics legal? Is he good enough to run against world-class runners?

Interestingly, during the pre-race introductions, it was Pistorius not Wariner who received the largest ovation. You might say this is just an example of the sentimentality of crowds everywhere, who automatically cheer the slowest runner just for being there. Maybe so, but maybe the crowd knew something. After all, once the race went off, only one of them kept running and finished the race. Pistorius even leaned at the tape, which seemed almost comical considering how far behind he was.

Funny, though. Pistorius didn't look like a man who was beaten. Sliding around the slick track on that miserable night, he kept running hard until he had crossed the finish line. In his post-race interview, he sounded almost happy. Didn't he know it was cold, it was wet, it was only SHEFFIELD?

I wonder who'll get the larger ovation the next time the two of them race?