Men's 110 Hurdles

Final

The final pitted the last two Olympic champions in a grudge match that came down to the final meters.

Allen Johnson and Anier Garcia both got identical reactions times (0.150), but Garcia came off the first hurdle a bit out of control and lost a bit of ground to the '95 and '97 World Champion. Johnson knocked over the second hurdle and would proceed to knock over every other one (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10), but built his largest lead over the Sydney champ by hurdle three.

Garcia, who looked very relaxed in winning his semi, had to press this time, and did not make up any ground on hurdles 4, 5 and 6. But the Cuban's strength began to show, as he slowly edged up on the American over hurdles 7, 8 and 9.

But coming off the final hurdle, Johnson still led and was not going to let the Cuban win this one. Garcia leaned early and nearly dove for the finish line, but Johnson held on to win his third World Championship in the event in a world leader 13.04. Garcia finished 2nd with his best time of the season 13.07.

Johnson kept running after the finish and sprinted the first 100 of his victory lap, obviously very excited.

Interviewed by on-field announcer Jon Ridgeon (himself the silver medalist in the event in '87), Johnson said, "I want to thank [South Carolina Head] Coach [Curtis] Frye. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do what I did. [Garcia] almost got me but I hung on."

Later Johnson said, "It was not the perfect race, but I got the job done. At the finish Garcia was coming onto me strong, I was really worried that I might lose the title.

"When the gun went off I tried to get out fast and concentrate on clearing the first hurdle, and be able to come off it with speed. It was between hurdles 3 and 7 where I hit nearly all of them. It was at this point that Garcia was feeling it and started coming onto me.

"13.04 is not bad, it is a pretty good result and I am just glad to have won this after the final in Sydney (where he finished 4th, after hitting all 10 hurdles)."

Garcia said, "The start was a little slow for me. If there had been a faster start, it would have made all the difference. I'm still an elite athlete and I know that I am in better shape than my opponents. In this race, you have to guess the start and today I just could not do it."

In the race for third, U.S.-raised Dudley Dorival, now competing for Haiti, scored a personal best at the right time to become an unexpected bronze medalist in 13.25.

Said the Connecticut alum, "The semi-final race was gruesome (13.43 for second in semi 3) and I was disappointed with my performance because I thought that I could do better. Today, I took full advantage of my lane. I was in lane 8 and I knew that no one could bother me. Yesterday, I was being bumped around a lot, but I knew that if I could get the outside lane, I could win a medal."

/Dan Lilot/

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