Fourth place at the 2004 Olympic Trials, Bershawn Jackson has a U.S. Olympic team to finally call his own.
Jackson, nicknamed “Batman,” won the final of the 400m hurdles in 48.17 Sunday afternoon at Hayward Field. Nike’s Kerron Clement was second in 48.36 and Angelo Taylor was third in 48.42.
Jackson will make his Olympic debut in Beijing in August, a first for Clement as well. Taylor, a gold-medal winner in the 2000 Olympics, made his third U.S. team.
The winner didn’t show any reservations for a first-time Olympian afterward.
“Amazing awaits, that’s the whole theme of the Olympics,” the 25-year-old said. “We’re definitely going to sweep, but who comes in first, that’s anybody’s guess.”
Jackson earned his second U.S. outdoor title since 2003 by fighting through the wind on the backstretch and extending what was a slight lead after 300 meters to a relatively comfortable gap by the finish.
Taylor had little more than 20 minutes to rest after the hurdles final before running in the first round of the open 400m. He did not finish.
Derek Miles made his pole vault win look easy, missing only one height. Entering the final height with Russ Buller, American record holder Brad Walker and Jeff Hartwig, Miles was the only of the three to clear the bar, set at 19-0.25. Before he could even attempt the height, Buller was forced to withdraw with an injury to his left hamstring (see sidebar).
Miles challenged 19-5 as the only competitor left, but missed on his two tries. It is the first U.S. outdoor title for Miles, who won indoors in 2003.
“This was way more stressful than ’04,” Miles said, referring to the last Olympic Trials when he finished third.
It is the first Olympic team for Walker and the first for the 40-year-old Hartwig since 1996. Hartwig failed to clear a bar at the previous two Olympic Trials and said in 2004 that he wouldn’t return for the 2008 edition.
“I never thought as a 36-year-old that it would be possible to be anywhere close to this level as a 40-year-old,” he said, the oldest man to ever make the U.S. team as a pole vaulter.
Hartwig’s second-place height of 18-8.25 set a new master’s world record. Until the Prefontaine Classic, Hartwig had held the American record before Walker went three-quarters of an inch higher, 19-9.75.
He guaranteed he wouldn’t vault in 2012.
“I could tell you now, for sure, four more years, I may be at the Trials but it will only be as a spectator.”
Former Arizona State University star Trevell Quinley won the long jump with a five-inch lifetime best of 27-5.25 on Sunday, upsetting Brian Johnson and Miguel Pate on his sixth and final jump. The leader since his third jump, Johnson had passed on his final attempt, unable to respond.
“This wasn’t the one to win, I guess that’s what I’m telling myself,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s second-place mark was 27-2.75, and Pate was third in 26-11.75, edging out defending Olympic champion Dwight Phillips by three-quarters of an inch.
Quinley’s jump moves him from 63rd in the world this year to fifth.
“I’ll tell you I’ve never been so scared after that fifth jump because you’ve still got the former Olympic champion who still has another jump, and you can never count him out,” Quinley said.
[email protected]