Poor judgment

BEIJING – In retrospect, there was no reason to be shocked when Tyson Gay failed to make the 100-meter final here Saturday night. His hopes ended with a questionable decision.

Not here, mind you, but six weeks ago in Eugene, Ore.

Gay’s chances at gold – or silver or bronze, for that matter – ended in Eugene when he decided to run in the 200-meter quarterfinals at the U.S. Olympic Trials even though he felt a twinge in his left hamstring.

That day, when Gay hit the curve and his leg gave out midway through the race – when America’s top contender for a gold medal the 100 meters was carted off the track – it was natural to wonder how he felt but reasonable to wonder what he was thinking.

What was Tyson Gay thinking when, six days after running the fastest 100 meters ever recorded, a wind-aided 9.68 seconds that pushed his body to the limit, he decided to push again and run the 200?

Despite his sluggish race in the semifinal heat Saturday, Gay still had the speed to outrun the media. But to his credit, he stopped and answered questions. Even the tough one.

What would he tell people who thought he never should have raced in the 200?

“I don’t have any regrets,’’ he said. “I felt stuff in my hamstring plenty of times and still ran. This time if I felt something I was going to stop. But unfortunately, it was too late.’’

Six weeks after breaking the American record with a 9.77 at the trials before his wind-aided run, Gay finished fifth here in the semifinal heat in 10.05 seconds. Recuperating from the injury set him back three to four weeks, he said, and that’s time he could not afford to lose.

“My mechanics weren’t where I wanted to be,’’ he said. “They could have been a little bit better. I think I just ran out of time.’’

But there’s ample time to revisit his fateful decision and what transpired next.

Jon Drummond, Gay’s coach, bears some responsibility. When Gay mentioned the twinge in his left hamstring before that 200 in Eugene, Drummond asked Gay whether he thought he could run rather than advise him against it. And it was Drummond who first tried to mask the severity of the injury.

Nothing but a cramp, he reported after the race, and suddenly the real race was on. Gay and his handlers had six weeks to get him ready to face Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, the world record holder, and other top contenders at the Olympics. Unlike the decision in Eugene, the following ones came with no good options.

Rather than test himself at a meet in London July 23, Gay withdrew. If he’d run, he would have risked aggravating the hamstring injury. By not running, he lost a chance to test himself against top-flight competition and bolster his confidence.

Rather than train with his teammates, he headed for Germany and sought treatment from a highly regarded physical therapist. By uprooting himself, he risked breaking the familiarity and routine that can be vital to preparing for a big race.

In fact, Gay acknowledged the injury affected him psychologically.

“I’d get down a lot and it was tough getting myself back up,’’ he said. “It was just a back and forth battle.’’

By Saturday night, the battle was over, but the optimistic had a reason to cling to hope. He made it through the preliminary heat and the quarterfinals. Then Saturday night, he stood in front of the blocks in lane 9, stretched his arms high into the air, bent over and settled into the blocks. Anyone who thought anticipation hung in the air mistook it for dread.

Gay got out of the blocks fast enough, and he ran hard enough to stay with the pack until the end. But the only question was whether he’d finish among the top four that advanced to the final. Not that it mattered. The medal hopes had vanished long ago.

After he failed to make the final, Gay insisted he had no regrets. But wait until reality sets in. He is 26, in his prime, and now has to wait four years for another chance to run in the Olympics.

While he recounted the semifinal race here in some detail, he should have been recounting the details of his decision six weeks ago. If he was thinking about winning the 100 and the 200 at the Beijing Games, it amounted to fool’s gold.