DOHA, Qatar – As the defending World Indoor champion in the 60-meter hurdles, LSU great and American superstar Lolo Jones traveled to this year’s IAAF World Indoor Championships with a chance to make history as no woman had ever successfully defended the gold medal in the event.
That was until Jones stepped onto the track for Saturday’s hurdle final and not only defended the title she won for the first time back in 2008, but also set a new American record and World Indoor Championships meet record in winning the gold medal in 7.72 seconds.
With her gold-medal winning run on Saturday, Jones now holds the distinction as the fastest American to ever run the 60 hurdles while breaking the previous American record of 7.74 set by Gail Devers in 2003.
“This is the biggest day of my career, my best race,” said an exuberant Jones after the race. “Finally, I broke one of Gail Devers’ records I’ve been hunting for the last few years. I’m back on track after 2008 in Beijing and my 2009 injury. To be back on the right track makes me so happy. And also, coming into this meet, everybody was telling me that a hurdler has never repeated and that it was impossible. I kept telling myself that it is possible. I’m glad that I had a great race.”
Only two women worldwide have ever run faster than Jones in the event as she trails only Susanna Kallur of Sweden (7.68) and Ludmila Engquist of Russia (7.69) on the all-time world list.
The Lady Tiger legend proved to be the class of this year’s field as Canadian Perdita Felicien finished in a distant second place with a silver-medal winning time of 7.86. Fellow Canadian and former 2010 world leader Priscilla Lopes-Schliep took home the bronze medal with a time of 7.87. Lopes-Schliep entered the meet with a then world-leading time of 7.82 set earlier this season.
Jones didn’t have the smoothest road to the final as she secured the eighth and final qualifying spot in Saturday’s semifinal round by a mere one one-hundredth of a second. Jones placed fourth in her semifinal heat with a modest time of 8.04, well off her time of 7.95 set in Friday’s first round of qualifying.
But with her undeniable run in this year’s World Indoor final, Jones reclaimed her position as the world’s preeminent sprint hurdler heading into what is sure to be a tremendous outdoor season.
“It really affected me out of the blocks,” Jones said of the crowd noise at the start of her semifinal race. “I saw that everybody was by me and I panicked a little bit and wound up hitting the second hurdle. I made it, but just barely. I was worried. I would have had a stroke on the track if I had not made the final. But after that, it was, ‘Who cares? I’m in the final. Let’s go get it done.’
“It was just a nightmare of a race, but I’m glad I had a bad race. It fired everything within me to say ‘That is how it’s going to feel in the finals, but only worse.’ It helped me pull everything back together.”