Johnson Can't Punch His Ticket to Beijing

"It seemed like everyone tried to come out and go a little slow," said Wallace Spearmon, whose time of 20.05 seconds was the second-fastest of the semifinal heats. "It's a red flag. I ran a little bit nervous" in the semifinals.

None of the athletes wanted to find relief in Gay's injury, but they were blunt in recognizing that someone unexpected will make the Olympic team.

"I feel bad when any athlete gets injured because I know I've been there," said Shawn Crawford, who won the second semifinal heat at 20.21. "But it kind of takes a little bit of pressure off the field."

Felix Makes 200 Final

Allyson Felix, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist in the 200, advanced to Sunday's final after failing to qualify last week in the 100.

"I know there's more left in there," Felix said, "so I'm really excited about tomorrow's final."

Some very talented and accomplished runners, however, will not make the 200 team. Just as desperate as Felix will be Marshevet Hooker, who finished fourth in the 100. Bianca Knight has posted one of the three fastest times in each of the first three qualifying rounds, after not even reaching the final of 100.

"I have way more left than people think," Knight said. "I made it to the final, I put in a good time, and I didn't put it all out there."

Then, there's also Muna Lee, Torri Edwards and Lauryn Williams, who took the three Olympic team spots in the 100.

"Being third out of four shows me I've got some work to do," Williams said, "if I want to make the top three" and qualify.

Oliver Survives to Advance

Howard graduate David Oliver advanced easily to Sunday's 110-meter hurdles semifinals with the fastest qualifying times in the preliminaries (13.24 seconds) and quarterfinals (13.07).

Still, he wasn't thrilled with his performance.

"I was just disappointed with my technique," he said, "but it was about 'survive and advance.' It's important to go through these first two days before you start thinking of Beijing. But, hopefully, I'll be there on [August] 18th," when the 110 hurdles begin. . . .

Allen Simms, a 2000 Eleanor Roosevelt graduate, will try to make his first Olympic team Sunday when he competes in the final of the triple jump. Simms's leap of 53 feet 11 3/4 inches was the sixth-longest of Friday's preliminaries. He was 16th in qualifying at the 2004 trials. . . . Shane Stroup, a 2001 River Hill graduate, failed to qualify for Sunday's men's 1,500-meter final, placing 24th. . . . Ola Sesay (Eleanor Roosevelt), the 1997 All-Met outdoor track athlete of the year, placed sixth in the triple jump, but it was not good enough to qualify, either.