Waiting for the next Olympic hurdler 

Duncan White (22) won a silver medal in 1948. From 1900 to 2000 Duncan White and  Miguel White, an athlete of Filipino-American descent were the only Asians to have won podium places in the 400 metres hurdles at Olympics.  

Tokyo Olympics – 6 days to go

by Reemus Fernando
continued from yesterday….. 

Asia’s struggles in 400 metres hurdles  

After Duncan White won a silver medal in 1948 the country had to wait for 52 years to see a Sri Lankan man compete in the 400 metres hurdles again at the Olympics. In 1948, in a race where the Olympic record was broken, White was just fractions of a second behind the Champion and just over a second slower than the then world record. Today the World Record and the country’s national record of the discipline are worlds apart. Early this month Norwegian champion Karsten Warholm broke the world record (subject to World Athletics ratification) with a 46.70 seconds feat. Today, Sri Lanka’s top hurdlers are struggling to stop the clock before 51 seconds. The national record which is 21 years old is just below 50 seconds. 

Certainly, White’s was a rarity in this US-dominated event. The 400 metres Olympics statistics would discourage analysts to suggest it as a prospective medal winning discipline for athletes outside US and Europe. When Kerron Clement won the men’s 400 metres hurdles at the RIO Olympics, the Trinidad-born athlete became the 18th American to win the gold medal of that discipline. 

Two Whites and Asia  

By the end of the 2016 Olympics, the men’s 400 metres had been contested 24 times at Olympics. US athletes have won 40 medals overall. That is more than half the medals distributed in the discipline in history. They have made a clean sweep of the medals on five occasions. The first time an Asian stood on the podium for the medals ceremony of the 400 metres hurdles was in 1936. Miguel White, an athlete of Filipino-American descent won the bronze medal behind Glenn Hardin of the US and John Loaring of Canada.  The two Whites, Duncan from Sri Lanka and Miguel from Philippines remained the only Asians to have won Olympic medals of any colour in 400 metres hurdles for hundred years. In 2000 a third Asian entered the list when Hadi Somayli of Saudi Arabia won a silver (47.53 secs).  

Hurdlers from English speaking countries     

The only times the winner of the 400 metres hurdles came from a non English speaking country were in 1980, 2004 and 2012. In 1980 the US boycotted the Moscow Olympics.  The Jimmy Carter boycott severely devalued competition. The Soviet Union dominated the medals table of the athletics competitions and the Olympics. Volker Beck of East Germany became the first hurdler from a none-English-speaking country to win the gold medal of the event. Felix Sanchez, the winner of the 2004 Athens and 2012 London Games is from the Dominican Republic where the official language is Spanish. Though he was of Dominican descent, he was born and raised in the United States.  

When the athletes take their mark for the 400 metres hurdles at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics there will be half a dozen Asian athletes including three from the hosts. Saudi Arabia -born Abderrahman Samba who represents Qatar is the highest-ranked of them. The Asian Games gold medalist, who earlier chose to represent Mauritania – his father’s homeland – before eventually switching allegiance to Qatar and moving to Doha, has a personal best of 46.98 seconds, though he is yet to run under 48 seconds this season.  His personal best is also the Asian regional record. Anyone familiar with the world-class training facilities available in Doha and knowledge of hurdles guru Hennie Kotze would be surprised by the fascinating performances he produced in 2019. Qatar hosted the last World Championship in Doha and the investments for world-class facilities paid dividends in the form of medals as Samba clinched a bronze. Japan the host of the Olympics has six of the top ten performers in the 400 metres hurdles in Asia this year. Apart from investing in infrastructure the host countries of major sports events also invest in the development of sports in their countries. When talented athletes are provided with the necessary facilities they become good enough to climb up the rankings irrespective of where they come from.