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Similar to the U.S. Virgin Islands’ Laverne Jones on Monday, Crabbe was bumped from the quarters by the last qualifier in the final of seven heats, who produced a faster time than his 20.85 seconds, leaving him two positions from advancing.
“I went in to the race looking to execute what the coach and I have been basically going through for the past days, which is just getting out, maintaining what I got out with on the curve and then just coming home,” explained Crabbe, who led the first 120 meters of the race. “I don’t know. It was a lot more than what I expected. Mentally, I was ready going out on the track. But, when I got on the track and realized where I was and all the people there, as soon as the gun sounded, I just remembered one thing which was just getting out. I didn’t feel like I ran the race that I was supposed to run. I think it was just a mental error. I don’t want to say too much pressure, but it was so much going on at one point and time.”
Coach Dag Samuels said it was more the mental and not the physical aspect that affected Crabbe. “Dion is ready to run. “If he was going to run tonight, he would have run even faster than that he did this morning,” Samuels said. “This is all a learning experience. Earlier we discussed running one race at a time. Now he understands because each race is different. Each race has in different competitors and you can’t focus on one competitor,” Samuels noted. “You have to focus on the other seven competitors because you don’t know who can come up and win the race.”
The race was only Crabbe’s third 200 meter run of the year. “Not making any excuses or anything, being in front of some of the world’s fastest guys didn’t feel too right at that point in time,” Crabbe pointed out. “I would like a lot of people to realize this is my first year coming off an injury. It’s not like I’ve been out there competing all the time. I had a really good year in 2002, but at the end of the year I got injured and had to sit out all of 2003.”
Crabbe returned to his training base in Mississippi for a while but felt the training wasn’t doing anything for him. “I was training with college guys then racing against professional athletes,” he said. “I moved to Virginia in early June and we are now in August. All in all, I think I did pretty well. But, I was expecting to run a lot faster, I know I can run a lot faster but it was just one of those races where I mentally shut down. I believe I was too ready.” Crabbe said his Olympic Games debut was a great learning experience and not all roses. “You have to go out there and run every race like it’s your last. As you can see, I was way in front and at the end, guys came out and did me,” he recalled. “I saw it happen to one of my training partners and was saying I would never let that happen to me but you don’t’ know until you get out there.”
From the experience, Crabbe said he will be better prepared in the future. “I’m going to be a more confident person because I know that I’m just as fast as the fastest guys out there and it has been proven,” he stated. “I was right there with them until I broke down. It wasn’t anything that they did to make me lose my race. They didn’t beat me. I beat myself.”
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