Not so fast: Error costs Gatlin 100 mark

Sprinter shares record with Powell

Justin Gatlin thought he outran the world record Friday, but simple math caught up with the Raleigh-based sprinter five days later.

The International Association of Athletics Federations announced Wednesday that a timing error at the Qatar Grand Prix in Doha incorrectly shaved a hundredth of a second off his 100-meter sprint. After review, track's governing body said, Gatlin only tied the world record previously set by Jamaican sprinter Asafa Powell.

Gatlin's announced record Friday was 9.76 seconds. Clocked at 9.766 seconds, however, Gatlin's time should have been rounded up to 9.77, equaling the record set by Powell last year, the IAAF said.

Gatlin was not in the mood for a belated throat-clearing correction after presumably claiming his sport's most glamorous record.

"It is very disappointing to me that it has taken five days to determine the official time of a race with this significance," Gatlin said in a prepared statement released by USA Track & Field. "I remain confident that I am the World's Fastest Man, and I look forward to proving it once again. My parents raised me to be a good sport, but I don't want to share the world record."

Gatlin's agent, former hurdling great Renaldo Nehemiah, wondered whether fuzzy math had fouled up the equation previously.

Nehemiah told Reuters Wednesday that he had sent an e-mail to the IAAF requesting a review of Powell's record run. Nehemiah said that Powell was clocked at 9.78 and that, unlike Gatlin, Powell had his time rounded down.

Gatlin and Powell will run May 28 at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore. -- just not in the same race. Meet promoter Tom Jordan told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the two will run the 100 but will be in two separate eight-man fields.

The two can't race against each other, Jordan said, because they are contractually obligated, for a high fee, to meet for the first time this year June 11 in England.