Robles for the Win!
by Steve McGill
While I’m admittedly not a fan of indoor track, I figured I’d go with an indoor race as this month’s great race, since we are in the heart of indoor season. After seeing University of Florida sensation Grant Holloway run a monster 7.43 in the 60m hurdles last week, with his nearest competitor a full three tenths behind, I couldn’t help but be hugely impressed. It got me thinking about other great indoor races I’ve seen over the years, and the first one that came to mind was the men’s 60m hurdles in the 2010 World Championships in Doha, where Dayron Robles defeated Terrence Trammell 7.34 to 7.36 in a race that was absolutely thrilling from start to finish.
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I realize that, by choosing this race, I’m choosing another in which Trammell was walked down after an amazing start. Two months ago I wrote about the Reebok Invitational in 2007, when Liu Xiang defeated him in a thriller, with both athletes running sub 13. And last month the focus was also on Robles, so this is two Robles races in a row. But no disrespect meant to Trammell, and no fanboy worship of Robles. A great race is a great race, and they’ve both run many of them.
With the outdoor World Championships occurring in odd-numbered years, and the Olympics taking place once every four years, the “gap” year in which there is neither a World Championships nor an Olympic Games has recently been filled with an indoor World Championships. Of course it’s not as fulfilling, and not as “legit” to be a world champion indoors, but it’s still something, and has been the venue for some brilliant performances, including Robles’ 2010 victory in Doha.
The eight-man final featured four monster competitors – Trammell in lane four, Robles in lane six, Liu Xiang in lane seven, and David Oliver in lane eight. All four of them had earned hardware at major international competitions over the years, all had personal bests under 13.00, two of them – Robles and Liu – were the previous or current world record holders in the outdoor 110 meter distance. Though a victory over the shorter distance over half the hurdles wouldn’t prove anything when it came to the outdoor race, this final was bound to be fiercely competitive just because of who was in it.
When the gun went off, Trammell blasted out of the blocks. Let me go on record as saying that, in my opinion, Trammell has the greatest start of anyone in the history of track and field, and that includes sprinters, not just hurdlers. Put Trammell next to Justin Gatlin, Asafa Powell, Maurice Greene, Usain Bolt, anybody, and he’ll be in the lead after thirty meters. In trying to decipher what Trammell does that makes his start so fast, I’ve come to the conclusion that much of it has to do with the fact that he places his blocks pretty far back from the starting line, giving him an exceptionally forward angle when he rises into set position. Most athletes wouldn’t be able to use such a start effectively because of the upper body strength required to hold that set position without falling flat on one’s face when taking the first step. Also, because he took an 8-step approach to hurdle one, that allowed him to get his first step down sooner and establish his race rhythm sooner than the other hurdlers.
The only opponent even close to Trammell out of the blocks was Robles, who also had a good start, though not jaw-dropping like Trammell’s. It’s difficult to imagine how, with the start Trammell had, he could’ve possibly been walked down in a five-hurdle race.
But Robles was coming. Trammell made slight contact with hurdle two, and then smacked the fourth and fifth hurdles hard with his trail leg. Still, despite his mistakes, he held the lead coming off the last hurdle. But he landed slightly off balance, and Robles, who was having an incredible race in his own right, took two huge strides off hurdle five, perfectly timed a very deep lean across the finish line, and passed Trammell in that last instant by two hundredths of a second. Oliver, who also came on late and finished strong, earned the bronze in 7.44.
What a race! Robles basically willed himself to the victory. As awe-inspiring as Trammell’s start was, Robles’ finish was on the same level. In evaluating the race, I’d have to say that the determining factor was technique, just like it was in that 2007 Reebok meet that Liu won. In both cases, Trammell’s habit of locking out the knee of his lead leg cost him the race. In this World Championship race in particular, locking the knee is what caused his trail leg to flatten out and hit the fourth and fifth hurdles. It’s a minor mistake, but in a top-flight race against top-flight competition, a minor mistake is magnified into a major mistake.
If you compare the trail leg actions of Trammell and Robles, there isn’t really much difference in regard to what the trail leg itself is doing. Both of their trail legs are high and tight, with the knee leading the way. The reason Trammell’s looks flatter is because of what his lead leg is doing. Because Robles keeps the knee of his lead leg slightly bent, his trail leg doesn’t flatten out, giving it a more direct path to the front. I really feel like Trammell could’ve been a sub 7.30 hurdler indoors if he had fixed that flaw.
Nevertheless, it was one of the most exciting and most dramatic indoor races I have ever seen.
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