BATON ROUGE — Former Lady Tiger Lolo Jones reclaimed her title as the fastest sprint hurdler in the world on Monday afternoon as she blew away a world-class field with a wind-legal time of 12.47 seconds to win the 100-meter hurdles at the 25th Vardinoyiannia athletics meeting in Rethymno, Greece.
Jones, who missed more than two months of the 2009 outdoor season with a hamstring injury, is back and better than ever as she nearly broke her own personal best of 12.43 set at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Jones entered the meet with a seasonal-best time of 12.87 set at the Athletissima meeting in Lausanne, but quickly found her rhythm in Monday’s race to cross the finish line as the world leader. She surpassed the previous 2009 world best of 12.52 held by Canadian Olympic bronze medalist Priscilla Lopes-Schliep.
“I have only raced a few times this season while being off so long with my hamstirng injury. I had to use each race in Europe to try and put my race back together,” Jones said. “The hurdles are a very technical event, so it’s hard to work on things while you are in the thick of the season. I focused on myself for each race despite taking some serious losses, and I finally put it all together.
“If nothing else, I learned over the past year that nothing is promised and to focus on myself and what all I know I can do. The rest will take care of itself.”
Jones also finished the 2008 season with the fastest time in the world as her personal best of 12.43 was set in the semifinal round at the Olympic Games in Beijing last summer. She is also the reigning World Indoor champion in the 60-meter hurdles after capturing her first World title a year ago.