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Thursday July 30, 2009

Van Zyl clears hurdles in year’s fastest time

MONACO: South Africa’s Commonwealth Games champion LJ Van Zyl enjoyed a superb run here on Tuesday to record the fastest time this year in the 400m hurdles at the IAAF Super Grand Prix meeting.

The 24-year-old — sixth in the Olympic final last year and sixth in the 2005 world championships — posted a time of 47.94 to beat home America’s 2005 world champion Bershawn Jackson while Jamaican veteran Danny McFarlane was third.

Two-time Olympic champion Angelo Taylor failed to start the race as van Zyl suggested that his brilliance as a junior — he held the world Under-18 record as well as when he was 15 — could be about to be translated onto the senior stage.

“Finally! I have lost so often!” gasped a delighted van Zyl. “At last I have won. I think that is the best performance of my life.

“It was a quick race from the start and I stayed focussed about the greater goal in Berlin (next month’s world championships) and everything played out as I wanted it to.

“I am in really good form and I proved it this evening.”

There was also a world best time of the season from American LaShinda Demus — the 2005 world silver medallist — as she timed 52.63 in the women’s 400m hurdles.

There was a win too for Australian 100m hurdler Sally McLellan as the 22-year-old Olympic silver medallist beat home the two fastest performers this season Canada’s Priscilla Lopes and American LoLo Jones.

The most surprising performance of the meeting came from little known American Maggie Vessey who bettered her personal best by more than two seconds as she ran the fastest time this season in the 800m of 1:57.84. — AFP

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