By Mitch Phillips
PARIS (Reuters) – Grant Holloway looked imperious in the sprint hurdles qualifying on Sunday but U.S. compatriot Freddie Crittenden opted for a circuitous route to the final, while Jamaican defending champion Hansle Parchment scraped through in extraordinary circumstances.
Holloway, leading the way in 110 metres times this season with 12.86 seconds, is a three-times world champion but was surprisingly beaten down to silver by Parchment in Tokyo.
He is desperate to make amends in Paris and his 13.01 in the final heat was the best of the day’s times by a distance.
Crittenden’s 18.27 was the worst. The man who posted a personal best of 12.93 in the U.S, trials, virtually stood up from his blocks then jogged down the track, stepping tentatively over each barrier.
He said afterwards that he had suffered a mild groin injury that he decided not to aggravate and that he would return for the repechage round on Tuesday having had some extra rest and seek to qualify via that route.
New to the Olympics this year, the repechage round gives athletes who have not progressed a second chance, as long as they finish.
The 110 hurdles is another event where the U.S. has astonishing historical dominance.
They have 19 gold, 21 silver and 17 bronze in a total of 57 medals. The next best is Cuba, with two golds in a total of five. However, Aries Merritt’s win in 2012 is the only gold in the last six Games.
Parchment, the man who denied them three years ago, has a history of cutting it fine, having scraped into the Tokyo Olympics as Jamaica’s third man then going on to take gold.
He did the same for Paris with third place in the trials.
On Sunday he finished fifth in his heat where he was one of four athletes given 13.43 seconds – behind heat winner Xu Zhuoyi (13.40) – but was ranked last of the four on thousandths of a second.
Remarkably, that was still good enough for him to snatch the 18th and last qualifying slot for Wednesday’s semi-finals ahead of the final on Thursday.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ken Ferris)
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