American Jeremy Wariner aims to defend 400-meter title at world championships in Berlin

Jeremy Wariner ready to defend 400 title at worlds

BERLIN — Jeremy Wariner of the U.S. said he is ready to improve on his silver medal performance at the Beijing Olympics and again defend his 400-meter title at the world championships.

“After the season I had last year, it’s really important for me to come here and defend my title,” Wariner said.

“A lot of people are counting me out, expecting me to take silver. My expectations are to come in here and defend my title the best I can.”

Wariner, 25, won gold in both the 400 meters and the 400 relay at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the world championships in both 2005 and 2007.

“No matter how hard I train, I need to train even harder to stay on top,” Wariner said.

He added that rejoining Clyde Hart, his longtime coach until January 2008, has helped add momentum to his training this year.

“For me to go back and ask him to be my coach once again was real difficult,” Wariner said. “We’ve actually had more fun this year than we have in our whole career as coach-athlete.”