Leroy Burrell had the best season of his career in 1991, first breaking
the 100m world record of Santa Monica Track Club (SMTC) teammate Carl
Lewis, and then subsequently losing the record to Lewis, when Leroy
finished a close second behind him at the World Championships in Tokyo.
Burrell was not in the same form during 1992, although he was still one
of the world's top sprinters. On 25 April, a SMTC foursome that
included Burrell and Lewis, set a new world record for the 4x200m relay
of 1min 19.11sec. Later that year, in the 100m final at the Olympic
Games in Barcelona, held on 1 August, Burrell was charged with a false
start even though it was clear that he had not left his blocks. Clearly
unsettled, Leroy was slowly away at the restart, and was never a factor
in the race, finishing in fifth place (see photo above, lane 6).
However, Leroy got some recompense in the 4 x 100m relay final, where
he ran the second leg on the USA team which won the gold medal in a new
world record of 37.40sec. Burrell failed to qualify for the individual
events at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart, but he was an
inclusion in the 4 x 100m relay team which equalled the world record of
37.40sec in the first semi-final, and went on to win the gold medal in
the final the following day.
On 17 April 1994, a SMTC team, which
included Burrell, broke its own 4x200m relay world record, setting a new
mark of 1min 18.68sec. Later that year, at Lausanne, Burrell caused a
sensation when he won the 100m in a time of 9.85sec, to reclaim the
world record. However, this was his only real quality performance of
the season, and the last time in his career that he bettered 10 seconds. (Ron Casey)
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