With little over an hour between semi and final, the 100m hurdles title was a triumph of strength as well as speed, and Ronetta Alexander, left nothing to chance, starting well and pulling away from 100m bronze medallist Sally McLellan (AUS) and Sabrina Altermatt (SUI) from hurdle 5 to secure victory in 13.28 (-1.0 m/s), a world leading mark in 2004 as well as a new personal best over the standard junior hurdles.
The Aussie ace McLellan may have felt the effects of so many races in so few days, and despite starting well she was unable to shake off Altermatt, nor the lanky German Stephanie Lichtl, who running in lane 8, ran brilliantly off the last two hurdles to close on the leaders.
Although Alexander, who like the 200m champion Shalonda Solomon attends the University of South Carolina, was a clear victor, it was hard to judge the other podium places and in fact, Altermatt just got the verdict for silver running a new national junior record of 13.39, 1 100th of a second ahead of Lichtl, with McLellan another 1 100th behind and out of the medals.
