Justin Gatlin

Carson: In one weekend, Justin Gatlin overcame more obstacles than a squad of hurdlers. The 23-year-old sprinter sank to emotional depths on Friday when he thought he’d false-started out of the 100m preliminaries, but he soared to new heights on Sunday when he won the 200m at the US Championships, becoming the first man to win the 100m and 200m titles at the meet since Kirk Baptiste in 1985.

“Coming into this season, I had a spark of inspiration to not just squeak by, but to come out and be competitive in all my races,” said Gatlin, who won gold at Athens in the 100, silver in the 400 relay and bronze in the 200.

“It came from a lot of people. I can honestly say it came from knowing what I did at the Olympics and that nobody thought I was going to win. It was a wake-up call. ‘Why is anybody doubting me?’”

There can be no reason to doubt him after he closed the US championships with a flourish, winning the 200m in 20.04 seconds.

Gatlin didn’t run a world-leading time, as Kerron Clement did with a 47.24 in the 400m hurdles, Allyson Felix accomplished in winning the 200m in 22.13, and Michelle Perry achieved with a 12.43 in the semi-finals of the 100m hurdles.

Clement finally was able to control his quickness enough to clear all 10 hurdles without stutter-stepping, and the result was the fastest time recorded since 1998 and the seventh fastest all-time. Clement won in 47.24 seconds to defeat Bershawn Jackson and James Carter for his first national championship.