Sunday, April 29, 2001
[ TRACK & FIELD ]
YOU SEE THE SMOKE before you hear the gun, and 11 seconds later, it's over. Nakanelua is Hawaii’s
fastest human, againBy Kalani Simpson
Star-Bulletin"Baaaaaaaaaaa!" screams Kelsey Nakanelua, unleashing all the energy and anticipation that 100 meters just wasn't enough to burn off, raising an arm and a finger and letting it out. He had turned his head to see if they had caught him. They hadn't. And so it all came out of him then, in a loud and triumphant spectacle. "Yes! Yeah!"
"Lot of anxiety released," Nakanelua explained later. "Lot of anxiety."
For the fifth time, at the crowning event of yesterday's Punahou Relays, Nakanelua was Hawaii's Fastest Human, the winner of the open 100-meters.
He'd wanted to win. He wanted that title back, the one he'd held from 1995 through '98. He wanted to hold off the challengers that are gunning for him, continually gunning for him, looking to knock him off.
The unofficial clock on the scoreboard read 10.41 when it was over, which would have been a new record, breaking the one (10.6) currently held by Nakanelua and former Rainbow speedster Matthew Harding. But no. Officially, it was 10.81 seconds to win it, edging out current UH wide receiver Sean Butts, who is already looking ahead to his next chance at the old gunfighter.
"I was catching him," said Hawaii's Second Fastest Human.
And he was.
Nakanelua knew it. Butts was a closer, and Nakanelua wanted the title back and the pressure of so much preparation for 11 seconds on the track all combined to make the 34 year old veteran sprinter a wreck before the competition.
"I was really nervous," he said. "Exceptionally nervous. I shouldn't be as nervous as I was, but I really ... I just was. I was like I never run the race before. I've run it nine times. And I was like ... I felt like I was 20-nothing years old. Panicking."
Panicking.
Nervous.
And so Nakanelua was gone with the smoke. A great start. A tremendous start. A borderline controversial start. "He always does," one official said with a laugh. But the ones conducting the race called it good, and so it was.
But be sure that the rest of the field watched last night's television highlights with great interest.
They've got the dates memorized. Their next chance at the champ. They'll keep coming. They'll keep running and challenging and stepping up to the blocks to beat him.
They know it.
And he knows it.
And that's part of what keeps him running, throwing on his Designer Bodies sponsor shirt immediately after each race. In the fall of 2000, he made it to the Olympics, carrying the banner of American Samoa. The Olympics!
But still, even that was nothing compared to the thrill of being the old gunfighter with the challengers after him, with pumping his fists on a beautiful afternoon at Punahou Stadium.
"Actually, I was more nervous today than I was at the Olympic Games. I have to admit that," he said. "Because, I not gonna win the damn Olympics, you know what I mean? How am I going to win that?"
Instead his guts churned and his blood pumped, all at the prospect of holding them all off again. At the chance to take the title back. To be Hawaii's Fastest Human once again. Not a bad goal. Not at all.