EUGENE, Ore. - In the end, it wasn't even close.

Portsmouth, Va., native LaShawn Merritt zoomed past the 400-meter finish line all alone, leaving defending Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion Jeremy Wariner dazed and in his dust at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials.

"If you want to know the truth, [Wariner] was Olympic champion in'04, a world champion a year ago," Merritt, who went to East Carolina University, said late Thursday after the race. "It's a new year. I'm going to be No.1 this year."

Just like that, in front of a packed house at Hayward Field, the six-time Virginia state high school champ upped the ante for the Beijing Olympics in an event that Americans have won gold in every Summer Games - but one - since 1956. Merritt achieved his first victory against Wariner last month in Berlin.

On a windy night Thursday, the 22-year-old Merritt blazed out of the start in Lane Six, with Wariner to his left, and created separation from the rest of the field. Racing into the backstretch with the wind in his face, he maintained his lead. Coming around the corner, about 300 meters into the race, Wariner actually appeared to be in fourth, with Merritt still ahead. Wariner pushed off the curve in pursuit of Merritt.

"I know he's a strong closer," Merritt said of Wariner, the world champ in 2005 and 2007. "My main focus was to come home strong. . . . I looked over to my right and looked to my left and didn't see anyone."

Wariner was huffing and puffing but couldn't catch Merritt, who pulled ahead to win in a time of 44 seconds flat, with Wariner at 44.20.

Meanwhile, in Portsmouth, a dozen people gathered around the TV in the den of Merritt's family home and watched the race that began at 11:17 p.m., Virginia time.

"Everybody was crying. . . . I don't think his goal was to win. It was to make the team," Merritt's mother, Brenda Stukes, said yesterday after the cheering had stopped. "Jeremy's a friend, but somebody's got to come in first. We'll take it."

Wariner took the defeat hard. He refused to attend the postrace news conference as all Olympic team members do. To TV cameras, he said: "LaShawn was just the better man today." To a small gaggle of journalists late Thursday, he said: "I'm still the favorite [at the Olympics]. I've been there before. I know what it takes to win."

Not recently. Merritt entered this season never having beaten Wariner, though he barely lost at the world championships in Osaka, Japan, last summer. At the meet in Berlin on June 1, Merritt finally snapped the skid. Now, Merritt's on a winning streak.

He was asked if he thought he was beginning to affect Wariner's psyche.

"It depends how weak-minded he is," Merritt said. "He's a pretty strong guy, mentally and physically, I know. I don't believe I'm getting in his head any. He's going to go back and train hard like I am. . . . Next time I race him, I can't get into the mindset I beat him the last time. Where I come from, it's tough. I never underestimate anybody."

Merritt said there's not much to make of the rivalry. He considers Wariner a pal, even if they don't hang out together.

"He's from Texas and I'm from Virginia," Merritt said with a smile. "If he was from Virginia, maybe I'd hang out with him."