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News18 Jul 2002


Men 400 metres Hurdles Final

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Men’s 400m hurdles Final

The men’s 400m hurdles was the last final of the day and as all other finals today the outcome was thrilling.

The two Americans running in the race, Bershawn Jackson (lane 3) and Kenneth Ferguson (lane 5) had evidently decided to adopt the same tactics: get out of the blocks as fast as possible.

Both ran at their highest level but running in lane 4 – between the two Americans – South Africa’s Louis van Zyl wasn’t going to let them have such an easy life.

Trailing behind the American duo with 100 metres to go, the South African dramatically accelerated the pace after clearing the eighth hurdle. It was clear that he had a lot more energy left and with the last obstacle perfectly cleared he powered to the tape in a new Championships record of 48.89.

Ferguson eventually finished second in a new personal best of 49.38 while Jackson took bronze in 50.00 also a new personal best.

Van Zyl, who was disqualified in Debrecen last year for an illegal clearance of the obstacle after easily winning his heat, became the sixth fastest Junior in the history of the discipline tonight.

At only 17 years of age van Zyl will still be eligible to compete in the Grosseto 2004 World Junior Championships. Should he win in two years time he would become only the fourth man in the history of these championships to retain a world title.

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