United States Olympic Trials. In his second year of competition at Texas Christian he set lifetime indoor bests of 20.73 for the 200 m and for the long jump. He was a finalist in both events at the NCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field Championship. He improved outdoors too, setting personal records of 10.16 seconds for the 100 m and for the long jump in Arlington, Texas. The 2001 NCAA Outdoor Championships saw him earn four All-American honours in one meet: he was sixth in the 100 m, fourth in the long jump, third in the 200 m and won the 4×100-meter relay with the TCU Horned Frogs. He began to establish himself nationally at that year's USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, where he came fourth in the 200 m as well as seventh in the long jump. Patton was later upgraded to third in the 200 m after Ramon Clay was banned for doping. First World and Olympic medals He had his first successes as a senior in 2002 when he was runner up in the 200 m at both the Indoor and Outdoor US Championships. The retrospective disqualification of Ramon Clay meant he was the American outdoor 200 m champion that year. There were no global track championships that year so he mainly competed on the international circuit. He won the 200 m races in Glasgow and London and was runner-up at the Golden Gala and Memorial Van Damme meets. He improved his 200 m best to 20.12 seconds in Brussels. The following season saw him reach the global podium for the first time: he became the national champion in the 200 m and went on to win the silver medal in that event at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics behind teammate John Capel. He also won a gold medal as part of the American men's 4×100 m relay team including Capel, Bernard Williams and J. J. Johnson. Moving entirely away from the long jump, Patton's sprinting times all improved that year: he had a personal record of 6.58 seconds in the 60 m, ran ten seconds flat at the Weltklasse Zürich meeting and ran 20.03 in the World Championships 200 m semi-finals. On the circuit he was runner-up at the Athletissima and Meeting Gaz de France 200 m races and placed fourth at the 2003 IAAF World Athletics Final. After a fourth-place finish in the