Solomon: La Porte's Clement rounds into gold-medal form just in time

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LONDON - In 2001, when he was a gangly sophomore at La Porte High School, Kerron Clement was excited to win a silver medal at the state track meet, where he finished behind local phenom Bennie Brazell.

"It wasn't my time to win," Clement said back then.

He returned to Austin the next year and won two state championships.

Four years ago, Clement, who was the reigning world champion in the 400-meter hurdles, was excited to win a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics.

"It wasn't my time for the gold," he said after a race in which all three medals were claimed by Americans.

He is back at the Olympics, and after completing his preliminary heat in his signature event Friday, Clement said it's time.

"There is motivation for me to come here to London and get a gold medal," he said. "I don't care what I've been through this season. I'm going to fight until the fat lady sings."

It has been a difficult year for Clement, who has run a limited season because of two surgical procedures, a hernia repair and an abductor release, in February.

With gold on his mind, La Porte's Kerron Clement clears first-round heat in 400-meter hurdles Friday. With gold on his mind, La Porte's Kerron Clement clears first-round heat in 400-meter hurdles Friday. Photo: Smiley N. Pool Photo: Smiley N. Pool Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Solomon: La Porte's Clement rounds into gold-medal form just in time 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

But he is feeling better now than he has all year, "98 percent healthy," and primed to make a gold-medal run.

Clement switched to Mike Holloway, his coach at the University of Florida, last November, after spending the previous four years training with Bob Kersee in California.

Clement thought he needed to get back to his speed work, which has set him apart from the other top hurdlers in the world.

"When I got to college, coach maximized my sprinting abilities," Clement said. "I'm young, 26, I have more to go. I just have to get the right training, which I am. I'm glad to be with my college coach again.

"He's the one that got me running really fast in college. He knows what I need as far as speed and what workouts work best for me."

Coach-athlete relationships are intense and unique. The best ones are long-lasting.

Clement has that in Holloway and his high school coach Mike Mosley, the former University of Texas middle-distance runner who retired from La Porte in 2009.

"Coach Mosley has been a huge mentor," Clement said. "He still calls me and tells me what he sees in my technique. He really helped me as a young athlete and I respect his opinion."

World-record talent

Just a few weeks ago, Mosley noticed a mistake Clement made in the U.S. Olympic Trials and called to tell him what he saw and how to correct it.

Some coaches never retire.

"Kerron has always been a coach's dream," Mosley, who lives in Pasadena, said in a phone interview Friday. "He never missed a workout and was always 'yes, sir, no sir, what can I do better sir?'

"He was just a pleasure to coach. It is so rare that a coach gets an opportunity to work with a young man like that, who also happens to be among the best in the world, the best all-time."

Clement was born in Trinidad, but his family moved to Texas when he was in the eighth grade to join his grandmother, who had been in Houston for 20 years. He became a U.S. citizen in 2004.

His immediate family lives in La Porte, though the members have set up residence in a rather loud section of Olympic Stadium to watch Clement chase gold.

His times haven't been where he would have liked, but Clement is getting healthy and might be peaking at the right time. Mosley always has believed Clement had world-record stuff.

When he was only 19, Clement broke Michael Johnson's world indoor record in the 400. That same year, Clement ran the world's seventh-fastest 400 hurdle time.

Early in his career, he often had technique issues, stutter-stepping between hurdles late in races. But he was so fast he could win.

Clement is arguably the most talented 400 hurdler since the great Edwin Moses and American Kevin Young, who holds the world record of 46.78 seconds set in 1992. Moses has the second-fastest time at 47.02.

With so little time on the track this season, Clement probably doesn't have a record run in him this week - the semifinals are Saturday, the final Monday - but he is capable. If he stays on stride, anything is possible.

In search of clean run

Puerto Rico's Javier Culson and Great Britain's Dai Greene enter the event with the only sub 48-second times this year.

"If he ever runs that thing completely clean, I guarantee you he'll be down there close to that world record," Mosley said. "There's no telling what he could run if he runs with abandon and complete confidence."

Clement is hoping for that perfect race Monday.

"I'm a fighter," Clement said. "I've had only a few races under my belt, just two tuneup meets, but I've been training really hard and as the rounds go I know I will get better.

"I expect to do well."

jerome.solomon@chron.com

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