DAEGU, South Korea—For 20.92 seconds, U.S. sprinter Jeremy Dodson was hoping to clear his mind of his legal woes and just focus on the 200 meters.
Even that proved difficult.
Dodson failed to advance out of the opening round at the world championships Friday. A late arrival, he made a quick exit.
Weighing heavily on Dodson’s mind was a pending court case following his arrest two weeks ago on identity theft. It followed him onto the track and then around it.
Try as he might, he just couldn’t put his situation aside.
Soon after his performance, Dodson was questioning whether he should have showed up at all.
“I tried to focus,” said Dodson, whose next court date is set for Sept. 15. “I tried to come here and surround myself with just track, forget everything else. You come out here and the gun goes off and you start losing and you panic.
“Everything comes to mind.”
Dodson’s agent, Vince Ewing, has maintained that it was Dodson’s identification that was stolen and “apparently used by an unidentified person.”
Asked if he’s confident the case would wrap up soon, Dodson said, “Very confident.”
“I just wanted to hope that it would wrap up sooner,” he added.
For a while, Dodson’s appearance at the championships was in serious doubt. He was released on a $10,000 bond, but one of the conditions was that he surrender his passport.
Following an advisement hearing last Friday, Dodson was cleared to leave the country. He thought he was ready for his first major meet, figured in this setting, his mind would be distracted.
Didn’t work.
“I guess obviously I didn’t focus on this and not worry about anything else,” he said.
The 24-year-old Dodson was a surprise qualifier for the world team at the U.S. championships in June, finishing third behind Walter Dix and Darvis Patton.
Dix easily made it through the first round by turning in the second-fastest time behind world-record holder Usain Bolt. Patton also advanced.
In light of not moving on, Dodson wondered if he should have given the spot to teammate Maurice Mitchell, who was next in line had Dodson not been able to make the competition.
“I’m second-guessing myself for coming here, taking an opportunity away from Maurice,” Dodson said.
Dodson fell behind early and instead of letting the race just develop, he tried to push his pace to make up ground. It backfired as he finished fifth in his heat in 20.92 seconds.
“I didn’t trust myself to run my race,” Dodson said. “The track is pretty fast and you get out there and you end up faster than you’re supposed to and lose faith. Got to trust yourself in the beginning.”
Along with competing, Dodson serves as a voluntary coach at the University of Colorado, where he ran track and became the school’s record holder in the 200.
He is also is enrolled in law school at Colorado, but said he’s been suspended until the case is over.
“It’s all overwhelming,” Dodson said. “You can only take what you can.”
