Hurdlers’ quests reach climax

PARIS, France:

A SHOT at a hat-trick of titles and one at ending a 12-year medal drought will take centre stage as the men’s 110-metre hurdles final and the women’s 400m hurdles final take place today to close day eight Olympic athletics from the Stade De France.

The men’s 110m final, which gets underway at 2:45 p.m., will be a Jamaica vs the United States affair with reigning champion Hansle Parchment, Commonwealth Games champion, Rasheed Broadbell, and Orlando Bennett battling reigning world champion Grant Holloway, Freddie Crittenden, and Daniel Roberts.

Bennett, who has finally broken through to the final after a number of semi-final stops, feels the time is right for him to vie for a medal against the best.

“I was surprised that I got a personal best (13.08 seconds) because I was just coming out here to make the finals. Knowing that I have made so many semi-finals so many times, it’s time to get it right and I did today (yesterday),” Bennett said.

Though Jamaica has won the event on the last two go-arounds of the Olympic Games, the balance of power seems tilted toward the US – the former wants to swing that.

Despite the quality of the field, Bennett is still backing himself and his compatriots to go for a third successive crown.

“My main aim to the make the podium. I am not here to participate. I am going to choose Jamaica always. We can come out here, we can do it. It’s all in God’s hands,” Bennett said.

Meanwhile national champion Rushell Clayton and Shiann Salmon will hope to get Jamaica’s first women’s 400-metre hurdles medal since 2012 when the gun at the start of that final goes off at 2:25 p.m.

Clayton, the fastest Jamaican this year, is counting on producing the perfect execution in her first Olympic final to add an Olympic medal to her collection of two World Championship bronze.

“The only thing on my mind is executing a good race. When I come to championships, I don’t think about times, I think about placements and, in order to be in the top three, I need to execute properly,” Clayton said.

Salmon, who ran a personal best to make it to the final, will be running with all the pressure off, ready to perform the best that she can in her first Games.

“There are eight persons in the final. I am already in the top eight in the world right now. So I am going to be bouncing. I am going to execute a good race and let’s see where that puts me,” Salmon said.

The race for the title is expected to be between the reigning Olympic champion and world record holder, Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone, and world champion Femke Bol.

The last time Jamaica won the title was in 2008 when Melaine Walker stormed gold in an irrepressible 52.64 seconds, at the time, the Olympic record.