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Men's
400m Hurdlers show 400m ability in Paris
Although
it can be argued that Felix Sanchez's superb 47.27 showing
in Paris disguised a lack of top level performances
in the men's 400m hurdles [with silver & bronze
medals being won in 48.18 and 48.24 seconds respectively],
a closer look reveals a clear upturn in the overall
quality in depth of the men's event. Whilst quicker
times are not necessarily called upon to medal than
in previous championships, there was a notable demand
for high level performances to guarantee progression
from the first round.
Thirteen
of the fifteen automatic qualifiers in the first round
ran below 49 seconds, with another sub 49 coming from
a fastest loser, compared to only two first round athletes
bettering this mark in Edmonton in 2001, six in Seville
in 1999 with the previous strongest Men's first round
in a World Championships having produced eight sub 49
clocking's back in Athens in 1997.Going all the way
back to the first ever World Championships in 1983 in
Helsinki only two men ran just below 50 seconds in the
first round !! [although these were Edwin Moese and
Harald Schmidt].
To
give further evidence to the quality in depth of the
men's 400m hurdles event currently, there were some
very useful contributions to some of the men's 4x400m
relay spilts from Paris by 400m hurdlers:
France:
Naman Keita 44.7 [44.1 ht], Stephane Diagana 44.69
Jamaica:
Danny McFarlane 45.1
Great
Britain: Chris Rawlinson 45.01
Greece:
Periklis Iakoavakis 45.00 [44.93 ht]
South
Africa: Ockert Cillers 45.6 ht, Alwyn Myburgh 45.72
ht
Dominica:
Felix Sanchez 44.01 ht
Russia:
Ruslan Machenko 45.17
Saudi
Arabia: Hadi Al Somaily 46.2
all
splits courtesy of Mark Butler
These
times along with the quality in depth of first round
performances would seem to emphasize that the men's
400m hurdles is attracting/developing a high standard
of athlete. There are currently 31 men who have run
below the 49 second mark in the 2003 season - this again
being a record beating the 29 who achieved this mark
in the 1999 season. It promises to be a very competitive
Olympic year in 2004.
18th September 2003
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