Men’s 60 metres hurdles heats
Heat 1
After three false starts - by Mike Fenner, Ross Baillie and Duane Ross - it was Ross
who won the race in 7.51, pulling clear after half way. Slovak athlete Igor Kovac –
rather than the more favoured Mike Fenner – gained the second automatic qualifier
with 7.59.
Heat 2
Colin Jackson and Reggie Torian battled it out in this heat – again marred by
false starts – with the 110m world record holder Jackson clocking 7.42 to win, just 1
hundredth ahead of his statuesque rival. It was a season’s best for Jackson who,
after a number of near misses in this event, has vowed to return to his native Wales with
gold. Hear the race call in the multimedia section
Heat 3
World Cup winner Falk Balzer – renowned for his fast (and often false) starts
– got a real stinker in this race. Way down at the first hurdle, the tall German
struggled to get back into contention as Poland’s Tomasz Scigaczewski scorched to a
national record of 7.51. But fortunately for Balk, this was the fastest heat so his fourth
place 7.57 was fast enough. The other qualifiers were defending World Champion Anier
Garcia of Cuba (7.53) and Elmar Lichtenegger, the Austrian who set a personal best of
7.54.
