2003 - Hurdles Review

Respected track and field statisticians, A. Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava continue their end of season review, with the 2003 competitive highlights of the hurdling disciplines.

MEN - Hurdles

110m Hurdles
Probably it is the high demand for technical skill that has made the 110m Hurdles the sprint-type event with the longest careers for top athletes. But everything must still come to an end one day and 2003 was the first summer in eighteen (18!) years without Briton Colin Jackson as one of the main contenders on the world hurdling scene.

Due to injuries reigning Olympic Champion and two-time World silver medallist Anier Garcia (CUB) had to give up on 2003, but it was still one of the longtime mainstays on the scene that was the undisputed market leader: At age 32 Allen Johnson (USA) had his 9th straight season at sub-13.05, picked up his 4th World Championships title, and won 14 out of his 15 meets!

The USA remained the world leading nation in the event with the help of experienced athletes like Larry Wade, Duane Ross and Terrence Trammell, although none more than Johnson managed to dip under 13.15.

The clear No 2 position – although he was injury troubled in Paris – instead belonged to Latvian former “Super junior” Stanislav Olijar who pushed Johnson hard a couple of times, and who won the only race Johnson lost (Berlin GL).

Behind Johnson a younger group of hurdlers, born a couple of years into the 1980’s was making its presence more and more manifest. The main proponents of this group being the Chinese duo Liu Xiang (World and World Indoor bronze) and Shi Dongpeng (World 7th), and Frenchman Ladji Doucouré (World Indoors 4th).

The lack of a US representative in this group of probable future stars should not be overinterpreted. Actually with very few exceptions (Renaldo Nehemiah being the most obvious one) most of the world class US 110m hurdlers have arrived on the scene a couple of years into their twenties: Allen Johnson, Duane Ross, Roger Kingdom, Larry Wade, Jack Pierce, Mark Creer and Tony Dees, were all between 21 and 27 when first breaking 13.50!

110m H - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 15 Dec 2003  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points

1. Allen JOHNSON 71 USA 1440
2. Stanislavs OLIJARS 79 LAT 1377
3. Xiang LIU 83 CHN 1372
4. Terrence TRAMMELL 78 USA 1353
5. Duane ROSS 72 USA 1350
6. Chris PHILLIPS 72 USA 1344
7. Larry WADE 74 USA 1333
8. Ron BRAMLETT 79 USA 1307
9. Maurice WIGNALL 76 JAM 1295
10. Ladji DOUCOURÉ 83 FRA 1288

400m Hurdles
Felix Sanchez is growing more and more into the mantle of invincibility which was once the possession of the great Ed Moses in the 400m Hurdles. Beginning in July 2001, Sanchez has now strung together two and a half years filled with 47 second runs, and devoid of losses.

However, while not wanting to diminish Sanchez’s accomplishments - after all his 47.25 in Paris has only been surpassed only ten times previously in history - it must be noted that 2003 became the first year since 1982 with only one runner dipping under the 48-second barrier.

The non-vintage character of 2003 could also be illustrated by the fact that the Paris silver went to US veteran Joey Woody in a time (48.18) that hadn’t been sufficient to get even the bronze at any other World Championships following the inaugural edition in 1983.

The main reason for the overall mediocre standard appears to be the regress in the USA. Typically two-thirds of the US team - Woody and Eric Thomas - for Paris turned 30 this year, and the lack of men like Angelo Taylor and James Carter was not compensated for by younger athletes raising their game.

However, Bershawn Jackson the third of the US trio in Paris looks very much a man for the future. Some additional physical strength, more experience in pacing himself in an optimum way and a slightly more polished technique (he was dq’d in his Paris heat for violating the trail leg rule), and Jackson could be a low-47 runner already next year.

But perhaps the most surprising revelation of the international scene was 31 year-old Danny McFarlane of Jamaica. After a decade as an international class 400m flat runner (PB 44.90, 8th in 2000 Olympics, 5-time World/Olympic 4x400m relay medallist) McFarlane re-invented himself as a hurdler, and ended up with a Paris 4th place (missed bronze by just 0.06) and 48.30 in his first year!

400m H - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 15 Dec 2003  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points

1. Felix SÁNCHEZ 77 DOM 1422
2. Joey WOODY 73 USA 1346
3. Kemel THOMPSON 74 JAM 1344
4. Periklis IAKOVAKIS 79 GRE 1333
5. Christopher RAWLINSON 72 GBR 1322
6. Danny MCFARLANE 72 JAM 1312
7. Dean GRIFFITHS 80 JAM 1294
8. Eric THOMAS 73 USA 1292
9. Ian WEAKLEY 72 JAM 1281
9. Llewellyn HERBERT 77 RSA 1281

WOMEN - Hurdles

100m Hurdles
Gail Devers (USA) went close to her best performances last season and also carried that form into 2003 as well. Like last year, her best challenger was Brigitte Foster (JAM), and both athletes finished the season as equal world leaders with 12.45.

However, it was the World Championships which produced the real surprise in this event. Devers and Foster were assumed to be fighting for the gold but succumbed to one of the biggest upsets at the Stade-de-France, as Perdita Felicien took the title.

The Canadian, double NCAA champion in 2002/3, was not supposed to be even on the podium after the race. In the last competition before Paris, she was given only a place in the B-final at the Weltklasse meeting in Zürich.

However, in Paris Felicien won both her heat and semi-final before finishing in a big personal best of 12.53 to win the final. Her previous best was 12.67, the winning time in the Zürich B-race.

Overall, this event was better than previously with 10 athletes at 12.70 or better, in 2002 number 10 spot was held with 12.75. The event was also much tighter, as in 2002 the gap from the world leader to number 10 was 0.35 seconds, and this year had reduced to only 0.25s.

Depth in the 100m Hurdles is also getting better year by year. 34 athletes were under 13 seconds in 2001, 40 in 2002 and now 47 this season matching the number of the 2000 Olympic year. This number shows real progress because it’s very rare for a non-Olympic year to be on the same level with Olympic seasons.

100m H - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 15 Dec 2003  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points

1. Gail DEVERS 66 USA 1381
2. Brigitte Ann FOSTER 74 JAM 1365
3. Glory ALOZIE 77 ESP 1339
4. Miesha MCKELVY 76 USA 1326
5. Perdita FELICIEN 80 CAN 1325
6. Melissa MORRISON 71 USA 1310
7. Lacena GOLDING-CLARKE 75 JAM 1309
8. Jenny ADAMS 78 USA 1301
9. Aurelia TRYWIAÑSKA 76 POL 1279
9. Patricia GIRARD 68 FRA 1279

400m Hurdles
Yuliya Pechonkina (RUS), the world’s number one 400m hurdler already in 2002, reinforced her status in August by breaking the World record with her 52.34 winning run at the Russian Championships. This was a remarkable performance and seemed to have been achieved with much ease.

However, Pechonkina, had been suffering from health problems in 2002 which had continued into 2003, and was severely short of races having competed in only three finals prior to Paris. That proved to be just a little too little although she started like a rocket in the World Championships final in Paris. In the back straight she seemed to have the race in control, but before the final curve was over with, it was already clear that she was not going to make it to the gold.

With the Russian ‘hitting a wall’ in the final 50 metres, it was Jana Pittman (AUS), already acknowledged as the most promising athlete in the event in this review last year, who took the win easily. In the process Pittman took a massive 0.39 seconds off her previous personal best of 53.62 (Rome 2003), and only missed Debbie Flintoff-King’s Area record and Olympic winning time of 53.17 by 0.05s.

Pittman, a double World Junior champion over the flat 400m and the Hurdles in 2000, ran a solid season with nine finals and seven wins.

Sandra Glover (USA), who has come to the world elite at a mature age, missed her personal best of 53.33 from 2000 only by 0.01s at Rieti in September, and also had another fine season. The American took the silver medal in Paris ahead of Pechonkina who dropped to third place.

Overall, the 400m Hurdles easily bettered the quality of the previous season. There were a total of 33 athletes under 56 seconds. In 2002 we had 26, 2001 - 33 and in 2000 - 43.

400m H - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 15 Dec 2003  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points

1. Sandra CUMMINGS-GLOVER 68 USA 1390
2. Jana PITTMAN 82 AUS 1387
3. Ionela ŢIRLEA 76 ROM 1355
4. Yuliya NOSOVA-PECHONKINA 78 RUS 1345
5. Andrea BLACKETT 76 BAR 1315
6. Tetyana TERESHCHUK-ANTIPOVA 69 UKR 1314
7. Natasha DANVERS 77 GBR 1304
8. Surita FEBBRAIO-LOOTS 73 RSA 1280
9. Brenda TAYLOR 79 USA 1279
10. Joanna HAYES 76 USA 1273