Semi 2 | time |
1. Roger Kingdom | USA | 13.37s |
2. Arthur Blake | USA | 13.52s |
3. Mark Mckoy | CAN | 13.54s |
4. Tony Jarrett | GBR | 13.56s |
5. Jiri Hudec | TCH | 13.73s |
6. Zhicheng Yu | CHN | 13.94s |
7. Philippe Tourret | FRA | 13.96s |
8. Mikael Ylostalo | FIN | 14.09s |
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Campbell, an Olympian for the third time, was the fastest in the first |
round, running 13.45, but the favourite, Kingdom was biding his time. |
In the second round Kingdom clocked 13.17, the fastest quarter-final |
ever. Kingdom ran a toned down 13.37 in his semi-final, 0.15 ahead of |
Blake, while the other semi-final was won surprisingly by Shishkin in |
13.46, just ahead of Campbell (13.47). |
In the final Blake got a superb start, too superb as it happened, as he |
reacted in 0.056 seconds, rather quicker than the 0.100 proscribed legal |
level. Blake and McKoy were three-quarters of a metre ahead of |
Kingdom at the first hurdle, but Blake quickly fell apart, and McKoy |
started hitting hurdles, with the result that Kingdom caught him at the |
fourth barrier. From that point on Kingdom was at least three hundreths |
faster between each hurdle than the rest of the field, and he powered |
through the finish a full three tenths ahead, the biggest margin of vic- |
tory other than Smithson’s 1908 win. Only Nehemiah (12.93) and |
Kingdom himself (12.97A) had ever dipped below 13 seconds prior to |
Kingdom’s Olympic run. Jackson outran Campbell over the last four |
hurdles to take silver, while Shishkin won the race for fourth, just hold- |
ing off the powerful closing rushes of Ridgeon and Jarrett. |