James searching for answers after disappointing loss
MOSCOW, Russia (CMC) — LaShawn Merritt’s hunger for success paid off, but it left one man, Grenada’s Kirani James still searching for answers from Tuesday’s men’s 400m final at the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships.
James, who went into the men’s 400m final, not only as the reigning World and Olympics champion, but also the only man to break 44 seconds this season, joined many asking ‘what went wrong for the Grenadian?’
And even while he told journalists “I think he (Merritt) had a great performance” and that the American “was very hungry and he wanted it really bad” he believe only a review of the race could help him find out what happened, especially in the last 100 metres.
Merritt, who did 43.74 to win the final, concurred “I was hungry. Probably the hungriest person in the field. No, I was starving. It’s been a while since I was able to perform at my highest level.”
But James, who had his worst performance at this level, 44.99secs for 7th, continued to search for answers for journalists, “I don’t know” dominated post race interview.
“The weather was good. I think I was healthy, if you look at the previous rounds, I was very sharp, but I don’t know what happened in the final here, but as I said, I will just go over the tape and see what happened, physically and mentally.”
He said “felt very good (for the first 300m), but I died at the last 100m, that usually don’t happened…but I will just learn from it, and move on from it, and get ready for the next race.”
He described the defeat as “hard luck” for thousands of Grenadians while adding, “Hopefully I can have a better performance and represent the country better in my next event.”