- guardian.co.uk, Sunday 21 July 2002 23.22 BST
Michael Johnson was put on this earth for one thing and one thing only - to show off his talents as an outstanding athlete, capable of running world record times at two distances that place entirely different demands on the human body.
Johnson was just a freak of nature. In the 1970s, when Alberto Juantorena managed to do his 'impossible' double, combining the 400 and 800 metres, everyone was amazed and said they would never see his like again. Well, I can say definitely now that we will never see anyone capable of matching Michael Johnson's 200-400 doubling abilities in my life time.
Johnson's upright running style was unique and no one could ever work out how he generated the speed that made him capable of running 200m in 19.32sec. Such tremendous speed meant that when Johnson ran the 400, he could go through halfway in 21.2, leaving the world's best struggling behind him, and yet to him it must have felt like he was almost walking.
Now that he has retired, there are a lot of guys out there vying for the top slot over one lap. They have the chance of a lifetime.
In Britain, the 400m is going through a transitional period. Britons have won the European 400m title four times in succession, through Roger Black, Du'aine Ladejo and Iwan Thomas. But none of those guys will be around in Manchester this week at the Commonwealth Games or in the Europeans in Munich early next month.
We have some young athletes vying to join the top end of world class. This is their big chance: they have to step up and perform.
The three who will be racing in Manchester and then for Britain in Munich - Daniel Caines and Sean Baldock of England, and Tim Benjamin of Wales - are fortunate because the way the competition at the Commonwealth Games and Europeans is laid out perfectly for them. Having two championship events back to back, though, is not going to be a holiday, with all the physical demands that it entails. But the events are in the right sequence for them to build and progress.
Certainly, on past form, that ought to suit Caines, who seems to improve round by round in championships. But to keep Britain's European title-winning sequence going, Caines has got to dig deep. He missed the European trials in Birmingham last weekend, which was probably an intelligent move. The world indoor champion, he is clearly Britain's number one, and he probably thought that to run rounds at the European trials might have been one meet too many, especially as he is prone to injury.
To win the Commonwealth 400m gold is going to be tougher than taking the European title. It is unfortunate that the Commonwealth Games has got a reputation for being only the fourth ranked of the international championships, because in some events the standard is second only to the Olympics themselves.
The 400m is one such event. All the world's top 400m runners, led by the world champion, Arvard Moncur, from the Bahamas, are from Commonwealth countries. The Jamaicans are strong, Kenya and South Africa have some talent, and there is a decent Canadian, too. The only significant one-lap sprinters who will be missing from Manchester will be the Americans. So for any of the home-based athletes to win the 400m in Manchester, they are going to need to run at least 44.50sec. It will be a tall order for Caines, who hasn't been inside 45 flat yet.
Of the others, Benjamin, the winner in Birmingham last Sunday, is only 20 and new to the event. He will get it right on some days and not on others. Baldock has potential, but doesn't seem yet to have learnt the right way of racing the event. Despite being around for a while, he still hasn't found the formula to get the optimum performance from himself. He should be able to run 45 flat, but sometimes he goes out too fast and dies down the home straight, and then there are times when he sets off too slowly, flies down the home straight, but has given himself way too much to do.
The 400 is all about pace judgment. They say that the optimum distance a man can sprint before the lactic acid builds up in his muscles and brings him to a crunching halt is about 240 metres. No two runners are exactly the same, so it takes some doing to get the pattern to suit you. If you get it badly wrong, you can look like a potato. Get it right, you are The Man.
I was scared of the 400m. I may have world and European gold medals from running a leg of the 4x400m relay, but I think I ran the individual 400m about four times in my career. I hated it - I would get to 300 and it would feel as if my whole body was on fire.
It is the demands of the event that have taken their toll on the likes of Thomas, Mark Richardson, Jamie Baulch, Donna Fraser and Katharine Merry. In training, they have to do what we call 'red line it' - push their bodies to the absolute limit day after day, and then come back for more.
That is how you build the body up to be able to race so hard. But go beyond the 'red line' and your body will break down, ill or injured. Yet all good athletes, when they are training well, want to train harder still, however much their bodies are creaking under the strain.
There is a fine line between excellence and disaster.
