year old Gail Devers (USA) who was expected to win a fourth world championships title in Paris but surprisingly didn’t make it to the final, scored an amazing victory in today’s 100m Hurdles at the Stade Louis II as she equalled the World leading time of the year in 12.45.
Running in lane 4 and helped by a 1.3 metres per second tail wind, Devers registered a 0.127 reaction time and was clearly in the lead as soon as the first obstacle was reached.
Devers’s secured the 30,000 dollars prize money with impressive ease. Today’s was the American’s sixth sprint hurdle win.
"I wanted to run a fast time, said Devers, but that still comes as a surprise. I wasn't so well actually, I felt very high on the hurdles, but that was done a bit on purpose as I wanted to avoid what happened to me in Paris."
Devers hit the fifth hurdle in her Paris semi final which led her to finish a non-qualifying fifth in that race.
Behind Devers today, European champion Glory Alozie (ESP) had a fantastic late surge to take second place in a season’ best time of 12.66 while Paris bronze medallist Miesha McKelvy of the USA held on for third in 12.69.
World silver medallist Brigitte Foster (JAM) who fell head first to the floor in a desperate attempt to clinch gold in Paris and subsequently suffered from a hamstring injury while anchoring the Jamaican 4x100m relay in the French capital took the brave decision to line up in today’s race.
Wearing a large strapping band on her left thigh, the Jamaican record holder was evidently out of shape and finished a very disappointing last in 13.26.
Canada’s Perdita Felicien, who won a surprise gold medal at 100m Hurdles in Paris two weeks ago, was one of only three reigning world champions to decline the IAAF invitation to compete in the inaugural IAAF World Athletics Final. Felicien officially returned to the University of Illinois where she currently studies Kinesiology.
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