Merritt sets world record in 110 hurdles

September 09, 2012 03:11 pm | Updated 03:11 pm IST - BRUSSELS

U.S. athlete Aries Merritt goes on win the 110-m hurdles and set a new world record, at Brussels' King Baudouin Stadium on Friday.

U.S. athlete Aries Merritt goes on win the 110-m hurdles and set a new world record, at Brussels' King Baudouin Stadium on Friday.

Aries Merritt already had the Olympic gold, so there was only one way to make this season even more special.

And in his last near-perfect 100-meter hurdles race of the year, the American put in a world record-breaking performance that had even himself shaking his head in disbelief.

Merritt finished in 12.80 seconds at the Van Damme Memorial, slicing a full 0.07 seconds off the four-year-old world record held by Cuba’s Dayron Robles.

In an event where records are usually broken by one or two hundredths of a second at a time, Merritt was as stunned as the crowd when his time came up.

“It was ‘What? What? What is this I am seeing?” he said. “I just started screaming because I was in complete shock because I could not believe I could run that fast.”

It was by far the marquee moment of the final Diamond League meet of the season, totally upstaging Usain Bolt’s routine 100-meter victory in 9.86.

Merritt shot out of the blocks and didn’t touch any of the 10 hurdles he swept over. Sensing the moment had come, he lunged at the line with both arms flung backward and chest outward.

The American already had the six top times of the season and had come within 0.05 seconds of Robles’ mark. But in balmy conditions with a slight tail wind, he finally shattered the record.

“It was almost perfect,” Merritt said. “I knew the track was going to be scorching.”

So was he.

Merritt dominated this entire season while stars like Liu Xiang and Robles struggled to keep up and then both pulled up injured at the London Olympics.

“I knew one day (I’d break the record), I didn’t know when,” he said. “It was kind of getting frustrating, because I kept running the same time over and over.”

Time to change it to 1280.

“I was in shock when I saw the time pop up on the scoreboard,” he said.

It was the biggest improvement of the record in 31 years.

Jason Richardson took second place, way behind in a time of 13.05.

Bolt, for once, was almost an afterthought. The triple Olympic champion ran a controlled race after a slow start to win the 100 in 9.86 seconds and win the diamond trophy for the top competitor of the season.

“I want to take it easy now,” Bolt said.

Fellow Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake followed it up with a blistering 200, blasting out fast from the gun before finishing in 19.54 seconds, unchallenged by anyone.

Merritt was equally dominating. Now his only problem is getting home on Saturday to the United States so he can start properly celebrating his Olympic triumph and world record.

After shaving a massive 0.12 seconds off his personal best, his whole body was aching.

“I need some treatment,” he pleaded, “so I will be able to walk onto the plane.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.