Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA – There is only one comparison that matters to Wallace Spearmon Jr. when it comes to his father Wallace Spearmon Sr.

“Everything he did, I want to do better and I want to do what he didn’t do,” Spearmon Jr. said.

Spearmon Jr. took care of one when he won the silver medal in the 2005 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki for the family’s first World Championships medal. He added a second with a bronze medal in Osaka in August.

The elder Spearmon’s best finish was fifth in the 200m semifinals in the 1987 World Championships in Rome.

Next on the agenda is to become the family’s first Olympian. A gold medal in Beijing would go a long way toward redemption in what Spearmon called a forgettable showing in Osaka.