For the third time in three days, 21yearold Ladji Doucouré of France ran the fastest time of all competitors in the 110m Hurdles.
His 13.06 winning performance in the second semi-final shove off another 16 hundredths of a second off the French national record he set two days ago when taking his first round heat in 13.18.
A former decathlete whose unorthodox position in the blocks is the result of serious back problems, Doucouré stormed out of the blocks in line with defending Olympic champion Anier Garcia of Cuba.
The older and more experience Garcia could not hold on to Doucouré’s tempo between the intervals and as the Cuban faded behind, the Frenchman was hitting the ground hard and making a huge impression.
Doucouré’s win was already secured as he cleared the last obstacle and just like others do, he cut his effort and just cruised to the finish.
“I wanted to score a good point today and show my opponents that it’s not just about them. Whatever happens in tomorrow’s final I am a happy man. The national record is what I wanted and I have it."
“I just need a lot of rest now and as far as the final is concerned I just want to run a clean race, I want to achieve a good technical performance.”
Fast finishing Terrence Trammell who is back in top shape following an appalling first round performance also advanced to what will mark his second Olympic final. The American clocked 13.17 in second.
Last year’s silver medallist in Paris and silver medallist also in Sydney four years ago Trammell is determined to go one better in tomorrow’s final.
Garcia held on to third (13.30) while former South American Junior champion Mateus Inocencio in fourth becomes the first Brazilian to make an Olympic final in the event.
There was another national record in the first semi-final courtesy of Maurice Wignall of Jamaica who crossed the line in 13.28 – an excellent improvement on his personal best 13.28 coming into the Olympics.
But Wignall wasn’t the man of the race as his win was simply the result of China’s Xiang Liu’s jog to the finish. The Asian champion was once again the image of perfection as he did not hit a single hurdle on his way to the finish.
Liu was so confident of his superiority coming off the last barrier that he didn’t need to produce any more efforts. His just watched as Wignall out-dipped him by a mere hundredth of a second on the line.
Latvia’s Stanislavs Olijars, the former World Junior champion, made also a good impression as he ran stride by stride with Wignall. The 25-year-old crossed the line in third in a season’s best time of 13.20 ahead of Canada’s Charles Allen who was lucky to even make it to the finish as the former representative of Guyana hit all but the first hurdle.
The final will be held tomorrow night with Doucouré and Xiang - both 21 and both with a personal best time of 13.06 - expected to be the main protagonists.
LA
