At tonight’s Olympic Trials, LaShawn Merritt won the men’s 200 meter semifinal race in 19.74 seconds. Meanwhile, in the night’s first men’s 200m semifinal, 18-year-old Michael Norman stunned the field when he beat Justin Gatlin by 0.02 seconds.
Norman, a high school senior, finished in 20.21, while Gatlin clocked in at 20.23.
“I’ll never get comfortable on this stage,” Norman said in a post-race interview. “It’s just the competitive atmosphere and the crowds that keep me going.”
Gatlin has only won a bronze medal in the 200m over a decade ago, at the Athens Olympics in 2004.