Morgan Snow of United States celebrates winning the Women's 100 metres hurdles Final on day six of the 14th IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona on 15 July 2012 (© Getty Images)
Morgan Snow became the fourth American to win the IAAF World Junior 100m Hurdles gold medal following a composed performance to stop the clock at 13.38 into a strong head wind of 2.4 metre-per-second.
This is gold medal number 2 for the 19-year-old who hails from the area of Atlanta, Georgia, USA after she completed the first leg of the sprint 4x100m relay last night here in Montjuic.
However it took a good dose of composure for Snow to come out on top as half way through the race, she wasn’t even among the top 3.
The fastest out of the blocks was in fact her team-mate Dior Hall who running from lane 8 held the slightest of margin on pre-event favourite and World Junior leader Ekaterina Bleskina.
Drama was about to strike yet again as the 16-year-old American, who maybe paid for her young age and inexperience, clipped hurdle number 7. At that point she was still trying to hold on to a thin lead but the technical mistake was enough to unsettle her. She went on to clip hurdles 8 and 9 heavily falling to the floor at the penultimate barrier. It was game over for the unfortunate American.
Meanwhile, Bleskina didn’t look as fluid as in the earlier rounds and in fact she was being challenged for the lead by Noemi Zbären running on her outside.
That is when Snow made her first impression with a tremendous turn of speed over the last two hurdles. Unfazed by the heavy fall of her team-mate in the lane just outside her, Snow moved all the way to the front taking gold by a mere 4 hundredths of a second.
The Swiss World Youth medallist was even with the Russian as the pair went clear past the final barrier with the taller of the two having a magnificent sprint finish to overtake the Russian for silver.
The contrast couldn’t have been more explicit. Zbären’s smile and celebrations for silver in 13.42 completely overshadowed the grimace of Bleskina whose bronze in 13.43 was nothing short of a big disappointment.
Bleskina had even more reasons to be unhappy about her performance in the final as the Russian convincingly defeated snow in yesterday’s semi-final heat 13.24 to 13.31.
Franziska Hofman who advanced to tonight’s final despite falling heavily to the ground through the finish line while losing a clear lead in yesterday’s semi-final as the fastest loser recovered from what looked to be a leg injury to claim fourth in 13.51.
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
This is gold medal number 2 for the 19-year-old who hails from the area of Atlanta, Georgia, USA after she completed the first leg of the sprint 4x100m relay last night here in Montjuic.
However it took a good dose of composure for Snow to come out on top as half way through the race, she wasn’t even among the top 3.
The fastest out of the blocks was in fact her team-mate Dior Hall who running from lane 8 held the slightest of margin on pre-event favourite and World Junior leader Ekaterina Bleskina.
Drama was about to strike yet again as the 16-year-old American, who maybe paid for her young age and inexperience, clipped hurdle number 7. At that point she was still trying to hold on to a thin lead but the technical mistake was enough to unsettle her. She went on to clip hurdles 8 and 9 heavily falling to the floor at the penultimate barrier. It was game over for the unfortunate American.
Meanwhile, Bleskina didn’t look as fluid as in the earlier rounds and in fact she was being challenged for the lead by Noemi Zbären running on her outside.
That is when Snow made her first impression with a tremendous turn of speed over the last two hurdles. Unfazed by the heavy fall of her team-mate in the lane just outside her, Snow moved all the way to the front taking gold by a mere 4 hundredths of a second.
The Swiss World Youth medallist was even with the Russian as the pair went clear past the final barrier with the taller of the two having a magnificent sprint finish to overtake the Russian for silver.
The contrast couldn’t have been more explicit. Zbären’s smile and celebrations for silver in 13.42 completely overshadowed the grimace of Bleskina whose bronze in 13.43 was nothing short of a big disappointment.
Bleskina had even more reasons to be unhappy about her performance in the final as the Russian convincingly defeated snow in yesterday’s semi-final heat 13.24 to 13.31.
Franziska Hofman who advanced to tonight’s final despite falling heavily to the ground through the finish line while losing a clear lead in yesterday’s semi-final as the fastest loser recovered from what looked to be a leg injury to claim fourth in 13.51.
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
