Ben Johnson, a four-time national sprint champion and former world record-holder, who once ran so fast that officials wouldn't believe their stopwatches, is dead at 78.
Johnson, who occasionally beat the great Jesse Owens, died Thursday at home of cardiac arrest."He died sitting up in his den looking at TV," Nannette Johnson, his wife of 17 years, said Saturday. "He was waiting for his dinner. When I went to tell him it was time for dinner, he didn't answer."
Johnson, who came to call himself "the original Ben Johnson" after the Canadian sprinter by the same name achieved notoriety during the 1980s, often faced Owens.
"Jesse set a world record of 6.6 seconds in the semifinals of the 60 meters," at the 1938 national AAU indoor championships, Johnson said in 1988. "In the finals, I equaled it and beat him by the thickness of my hand."
In the Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden that year, Johnson equaled the 60-yard record of 6.2 in a heat, then broke the mark by running 6.1 in the semifinals.
In the final, he went 6.0, but officials didn't believe anyone could run that fast. The stopwatches were examined and certified as accurate.
But the Amateur Athletic Union
refused to confirm. Bob Hayes set the record of 5.9 in 1964. Johnson never did 6.0 again.
"I got a tremendous start," Johnson said. "My forte was my ability to reach top speed in the first two or three steps. Others might take five, six or seven. My second step, I was gone."
Johnson admired the modern Ben Johnson and videotaped a world record-setting 100-meter dash of 9.83 by the Canadian at the 1987 World Championships.
"It was the perfect race," the elder Johnson said.