Joanna Hayes (USA) in Helsinki (© Getty Images)
The two quickest women sprint hurdlers of 2005, Michele Perry and Olympic champion Joanna Hayes, have returned to their ‘first love’ event after years of successful, though not so spiritually rewarding competition, respectively at the Heptathlon and the 400m Hurdles.
Joanna Hayes, 28, the IAAF World Ranked number one at 100m Hurdles and the second quickest of this season (12.47) came into the 2004 Olympic summer better known as a 400m Hurdler (54.57 PB) than a sprint specialist. She possessed a more than respectable personal best of 12.67 at the start of 2004, and had previously narrowly missed a spot on the 2000 USA Olympic Team, at both events, placing 4th in the 400m Hurdles and 5th in the 100m Hurdles.
But the year before her remarkable Athens Olympic triumph it had been at the longer event at which Hayes, the World University Games 400m Hurdles silver medallist of 1999, had won the 2003 Pan Am Games. She had also spent time one lap hurdling round the Golden League circuit, clocking a 54.66 season’s best in the Paris leg of the series.
Yet “the 100m Hurdles was always my first love,” confirmed Hayes, “and I knew my personal best was better than the one I had going into Athens (at the time a 12.50 – 2nd place, USA Trials). She blasted to a new personal best of 12.48 in the semi-final stage in Athens, and then improved the Olympic record to 12.37 when winning the final.
A replica whirlwind is set to hit Helsinki
Hayes’ dramatic competitive transformation surprised the world in 2004, and the Olympic champion recognises that a similar athletic whirlwind could lead to her own demise in Helsinki.
Michele Perry, 26, took part in the Olympics as a sprint hurdler too, setting her personal best of 12.74 but the difference was that that race was part of her challenge for Heptathlon honours.
The USA Trials third placer came into the Greek capital with a 6126pts PB from that event, and finished in 14th, just 2 points shy of that total. That competition finished on 21 August and that was the completion of a good season in the Combined Event. However, lacking motivation for the multiple disciplines over the autumn, when she next competed (29 January 2005), Perry returned as a sprint hurdler.
Nothing spectacular occurred that indoor season – 6th at the USA nationals – to indicate the impact she has made this summer, but in a similar manner to Hayes’ Olympic season, Perry has mesmerized her more experienced opponents. She has set four of the five fastest times in the world this summer headed by her 12.45 world lead in the semi-finals at the USA Championships.
“No, I am not surprised about Michelle’s (Perry) development this year,” said Hayes. “She has been running hurdles since she was 14 years. She is a natural hurdler who has been honed into a heptathlete.”
“Just like myself with the 400m Hurdles, she knew where her real heart lay and now like me she has returned to the event she loves the best.’
“She has exploded on to the hurdles scene like I did in 2004. It is my job in Helsinki to contain that explosion as much as possible, so that I end up the winner but I am sure that we will finish one – two for sure.”
Chris Turner for the IAAF
