2006 World Cup
One new thing I’ll start doing in this magazine is taking a look back at some of the more riveting races that have taken place in the hurdling events over the years. I’m going to start with a race that I rank as one of my favorite of all-time, the 2006 World Cup 110m hurdle final. It featured three of my favorite hurdlers of all time – Allen Johnson, Liu Xiang, and Dayron Robles. At this point in time, Liu was the king of the world in the hurdles, having set the world record earlier that summer, and having dominated the Olympic final two years earlier. Meanwhile, Robles was a young on-the-come-up hurdler who was looking to challenge Liu’s dominance. Johnson, by this point of his career, had achieved all there was to achieve – an Olympic gold medal, three World Championship gold medals, double digit sub-13’s.
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But Johnson was on downside of his career. His last major championship was three years gone by, and he had been struggling with injuries ever since, preventing him from maintaining top form. Plus he had that infamous fall in the prelims of the 2004 Olympics. But late in the summer of 2006 he was gradually putting together a strong season, and seemed reasonably fit to take on the likes of Liu and Robles. Although a long-time fan of Johnson, I was not expecting him to win. Liu was definitely the man to beat. But I was hoping Johnson would give him a good run for his money, as American hurdling was struggling at that time.
Turns out Johnson ran a fantastic race, leading from start to finish. He won in 12.94, with Liu second in 13.03 and Robles third in 13.06. It was a magical moment, in which the grand old man pulled off the seemingly impossible. But more than that, it served as testimony to what can be accomplished when one is a true craftsman, a true master of one’s event. Although 12.94 was not Johnson’s personal best, it was a masterful race technically. In his younger years, he was known for hitting a lot of hurdles in races. In the 1996 Olympic final as well as in the 1995 World Championship final, he hit more than half the hurdles, and hit some of them very hard. Being a purist about the art form, I was bothered by those races even though I was happy to see him win. I didn’t want to see a whole generation of hurdlers grow up behind him believing that hitting hurdles was a good thing.
As the years went on, Johnson became more and more of a technician who understood the nuances of the race as opposed to relying so heavily on his aggression and athleticism. Thus he was able to defeat hurdlers who were better athletes on paper, such as Anier Garcia and Terrence Trammell in the early 2000’s.
By the time of this 2006 World Cup race, Johnson was considered more of a back-in-the-day superstar whose best days were behind him. But he proved otherwise. And he did so by running one of the most well-executed races in the history of the event. His movements over the hurdles and between the hurdles are very precise and very efficient. He keeps a steady rhythm and doesn’t allow the fact that Liu was known to be a strong finisher unnerve him. He only hits one hurdle throughout the race – the ninth one – and he recovers quickly to clear the last hurdle cleanly before dashing to the finish line.
From a technical standpoint, what I like most about this race (along with many of Johnson’s races) is that it shows the value of high heel recovery. Especially in the slow-motion replays, it is obvious that Johnson has very high heel recovery, which leads to high knee lift when diving into the hurdle, which makes the hurdle smaller and ensures very low hurdle clearance. In addition, it keeps the legs cycling over the hurdle, ensuring that there are no pauses in the hurdling action.
To me, this race, more than any other, serves as evidence as to why Johnson is the greatest 110m hurdler ever. Not only did he rise to the occasion against stellar competition, not only did he do so while in his hurdling old age, but he ran one of the most technically sound races ever run.
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