MEN'S 400H

FINAL

Angelo Taylor had not raced in his specialty all season until Eugene. He used the first two rounds to prep for today's final. The field was close through six barriers until Taylor started to show his strength. By the seventh hurdle Taylor had a three meter bulge that he never relinquished. With another national title wrapped up Taylor eased off the gas fifteen meters from the line to finish in 48.53. Calvin Davis closed quickly to nab second in 48.75 just nipping James Carter (48.79) in the final meters.

HEATS
In his first race of the year, Olympic champion Angelo Taylor looked strong early in his heat. He appeared to glide over the barriers but ran with power between. Fading a bit in the stretch, he held on to take his race in 50.20.

That was heat 2, the slowest ofthe five prelims. NCAA champ Bayano Kamani won heat 4 at 50.12, but all other winners ducked under 50: Joey Woody at 49.73 in heat 1, Sydney 4th-placer James Carter (49.65) from Atlanta bronze winner Calvin Davis (49.72) in heat 3 and '00 Olympian Eric Thomas (49.73) from Torrance Zellner (49.82) in heat 5.

The most notable casualty was 1996 Olympicchampion Derrick Adkins, who ran hard early in heat 4 but faded off the final turn to clock 51.29 for a non-qualifying 5th.