Who Is Chris Jones?

This article was co-written by former track standout Marlon Ramsey and Jay Hicks.

With the Olympic Trials just around the corner, Chris Jones had been dropping his times and moving ever closer to his goal of creating a legacy for his children, ages 6 and 7-weeks-old, by making the U.S. Olympic Team. It is his latest efforts to make the Olympics after three years out of the game that could very well bring the eyes of the track and field world to his cause. So, we set out to learn exactly who is Chris Jones.

This track and field disciple, if you will, comes out of the legendary Texas high school 400-meter track scene. He was part of a group of trailblazers that were your favorite runners, favorite runners. He ran during the impressive high school quarter-miler era that produced former greats such as Deon Minor (45.75), Milton Mallard (45.80), Danny McCray (45.74), and of course, Marlon Ramsey (45.36). A group that Texas high school stand outs Brandon Couts (Greenville), Kellie Willie (Houston), Jeremy Wariner (Arlington), and Kerron Clement (LaPorte) grew up watching.

He is a 400-meter talent. During his collegiate running, he was a four time 400-meter conference champion while attending Rice University and University of Houston respectively. Jones is the former 1997 World Outdoor Champion at 400 meters and still holds the school records at Rice University (1994) and University of Houston (1997) in the event.

Today the Houston resident is driven by his passion and love for the sport that has given him so much. Many of his counter parts have long ago retired or left the sport all together, but Chris is running toward his dream of representing the U.S. in Beijing.

Jones started the season at the Komen Houston Run For Breast Cancer, a distance he had never run before in his life and ran 24th in the road race featuring 2,000 runners. Jones then became inspired and called Coach Tom Tellez to lay down a base and begin fall workouts for the 400 meters again. "I love to run. No matter what the distance is, I will be competitive," says Chris Jones. Things started to take off when Jones won the UTSA Invitational in 47.40. He said, "It was an unbelievable feeling, surreal."

In his prime, Jones claims a personal best of 44.87. Today he has a family, a full-time job, and has still managed to run a season best of 46.23 so far this year. This time is very close to the Olympic Trials qualifying time (45.95).

"I feel rejuvenated, like a new man said Jones. I was real skeptical at first, and then the pieces started coming together."

This is the picture of a man chasing down his dreams. Chris Jones returns to the sport to finish his story of achieving an extraordinary goal by making history and the U.S. Olympic Team. His grandfather told him "never be an ordinary man, always stand out in life." And Chris is being anything, but ordinary.

By Jay Hicks and Marlon Ramsey. Marlon Ramsey is a PreraceJitters.com guest contributor. He is a former SWC Champion and NCAA runner-up at 400-meters while wearing the green and gold of Baylor University. Ramsey is also a former World Champion as a part of the 1995 Team USA 4x400-meter relay.

LaShawn Merritt On Top of the World

At the Guadeloupe meet in the Caribbean, LaShawn blistered the track in the 400-meter with 44.34. He was followed by Angela Taylor in 45.06 and David Neville in 45.08.

LaShawn’s world-leading time continues to seesaw with the times of Olympic champion Jeremy Wariner. Before this race Wariner held the top time this season, and prior to that Merritt held the honor. For now at least, Merritt lays claim to the leading time in the world.

If you are looking for a runner that can break Wariner’s current winning streak, just look to LaShawn Merritt. He has proven to have razor sharp speed, posting 19.80 in the 200, and the ability to execute a precise one lap race. This topic may be revisited very soon. Jeremy is set to run the 400-meter at the Adidas Classic on May 18, and he is sure to want to send a message to Merritt.

By Jay Hicks, a.k.a. Track Evangelist.

They Love to Hate Jeremy Wariner

Jeremy Wariner’s feet are quieting the pervasive naysayers that continue to question his move to break from long-time coach Clyde Hart. The coaching change to Michael Ford is old news at this point, and fans are holding J Dub to a higher standard than found in the coaching carousel in pro sports.

Track discussion boards such as Trackshark and Track and Field News have been hosting misguided discussions about Jeremy Wariner. These sentiments are expressed by “fans”, and in no way are a reflection of Tom Borish at Trackshark and Garry Hill at Trackandfieldnews.com. Both are fab discussion boards that normally host many interesting topics on sport.

Quite frankly, some of the unfortunate comments hurled towards J Dub come out of jealousy, and others are from fans that may not be realistic. The reigning world and Olympic champion typically rocks races with dark black shades and headlight sized diamond earrings.

He’s envied. He is sometimes reviled. He’s the kid from Arlington, Texas who has conquered the track game. Though he’s not yet reached his prime, Wariner could claim to be the baddest 400 runner not named Michael Johnson.

He probably has a 1 million frequent flier miles to globe hop, unlimited amount of the illest Adidas gear imaginable, and as the heir apparent to Michael Johnson at 400-meters reigns supreme at center stage in the track world.

Most of the negative comments are out of emotion. So there is no sense in pointing out that Jeremy is fan-friendly and widely recognized in track circles for signing countless autographs.

As the urban poet Jay-Z says, Jeremy should brush his shoulders off and keep doing his thing, because it’s apparently working.

By Jay Hicks, a.k.a. Track Evangelist

Young and Fast: Merritt Opens Strong

If anyone thinks that they have a reserved spot on the Team USA headed to Beijing they couldn’t be further from the truth. On Friday LaShawn Merritt ran the fastest 400-meters in the world this year with a time of 44.72 at the Raleigh Relays in Raleigh, NC on March 28. He started this season exactly where he left off last season: crazy fast.

Merritt bested Jeremy Wariner’s 44.82 to lead the list of world best 400-meter times.

The evolution of Merritt began last year at the world outdoor champions in Osaka. The 21-year-old, Virginia native finished second in 43.96 behind Jeremy Wariner, the winner in 43.45.

Merritt led at the 300-meter mark in Osaka last year with the world title on the line but couldn’t hold off Wariner’s late charge in the final 50 meters. Both athletes set personal bests in the race.

The young, explosive runner is arguably the sprinter with enough speed to disrupt Jeremy Wariner’s plans of winning back-to-back Olympic 400-meter titles. It will be telling how Merritt performs against reigning Olympic champion, Jeremy Wariner, in the races leading up to the Olympic Trials in July. Stay tuned this is must see television.

By Jay Hicks, a.k.a. Track Evangelist

Jeremy Wariner Has New Coach

Jeremy Wariner won the Men's 400m in a personal best time of 43.50 on August 7 at the DN Galan Meet in Stockholm, Sweden.

It didn’t take very long. Jeremy Wariner has switched to Baylor assistant coach Michael Ford—who coaches Wariner’s training partner and former teammate Darold Williamson.

Coach Clyde Hart announced yesterday he split with Wariner because of a contract dispute.

An official contract with Coach Ford has not been signed but the decision is not surprising. The move allows Jeremy to remain in Waco at the Baylor track and train in the system that has made him successful.

Coach Ford was a standout 400 meter runner at Baylor and has been an excellent track coach at the university for eight years. Ford is prepared to coach the planet’s fastest 400 meter runner.

Sure, this is a distraction today. It is likely that very little will change in the long run. Jeremy has a talented management team to steer his career that includes agent, Michael Johnson, and manager, Deon Minor, who was a two-time indoor NCAA 400-meter champion at Baylor.

Next week Wariner is headed to Beijing on Olympic publicity work, and then he is back to the Baylor track to work on winning Olympic gold and breaking the world record.

By Jay Hicks, a.k.a. Track Evangelist

Jeremy Wariner Kicking Off Season In Australia

Jeremy Wariner and his agent, Michael Johnson, recently announced in an IAAF interview, legendary track Coach Clyde Hart – who also guided Michael Johnson – swears this meet does not deviate from Wariner’s training schedule to defend his Olympic title in Beijing next year.

Wariner joins two more prominent runners at the Melbourne meet. Asafa Powell the 100-meter World Record holder announced last week that he will train and compete in the Melbourne meet, as will Darold Williamson, a fellow Baylor alum and member of the 2004 Olympic gold medal 4 x 400 meter relay.

Like other pro track runners the last few years, Wariner has skipped the indoor season entirely. The weather can be hit or miss when he traditionally kicks off his season with low key meets in March.

However, Wariner has shown in the past that he is bold and daring. For example, he has been running the 200-meters in major races to improve his speed to break the world record.

Whether he dips under 45 seconds in Australia’s warm weather will depend on how much training can be done before February.

Running in Melbourne that early in the season will definitely make for a long season but Wariner has already pulled off the nearly undoable triple crown – winning indoor and outdoor NCAA Championships and the Olympic gold medal during his last year at Baylor University.

Wariner plans to put on a show this upcoming season.

Fans will have to wait and see if Jeremy can strike gold again in Beijing and break Michael Johnson’s record of 43.18.

By Jay Hicks, aka Track Evangelist