The men’s sprint hurdles, the first track event of the inaugural World Athletics Final in Monaco’s Louis II Stadium featured six American runners alongside one Latvian and one Chinese representative.
It took Allen Johnson 13.11 seconds - one hundredth of a second faster than his winning time in Paris - to secure the win here and end a brilliant season which saw him conquering a fourth 110m Hurdles world crown two weeks ago.
His win today didn’t look as easy as his Paris win though. Running in lane 3, Duane Ross was the fastest out of the blocks and still in the lead slightly ahead of Stanislavs Olijars (LAT) after the first two barriers.
While Olijars, who after withdrawing from the Paris World Championships with a hamstring injury had declared he didn’t want to miss out on Monaco’s final, was consistent over the barriers, Ross quickly lost his memento and was never a contender for the top honours.
That is when Johnson, who recorded the second to last slowest reaction time today, made his move and started gaining ground on his Latvian opponent.
Touching all ten hurdles on his way to the finish line didn’t seem to affect Johnson’s speed and the man from South Carolina was well clear of training partner and world silver medallist Terrence Trammell who clocked a season’s best 13.17 to finish second.
A delighted Johnson said after his race: “My main goal this year was to win a fourth world title in Paris. Once I achieved that, I wanted to come here to Monaco, a place which I really like, and do well.”
Olijars eventually held on to third in 13.25 and prevented a repetition of Paris podium with China’s Xiang Liu finishing fourth in 13.27.
IAAF - la