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Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 110 metres hurdles

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Venue
  
Olympic Stadium

Competitors
  
53 from 33 nations

Date
  
7–8 August

Winning time
  
12.92

The Men's 110 metres hurdles competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom. The event was held at the Olympic Stadium on 7–8 August.

Contents

The qualifying round was notable for who was eliminated. In heat 3, Shamar Sands was in the lead until he hit the sixth hurdle, crashing into the next hurdle and somersaulting into a heap, making him one of three athletes in that heat not to make it to the finish line. In the fifth heat, Aries Merritt ran the fastest qualifying time by far with a 13.07. In the final heat, 2004 gold medalist Liu Xiang reminded viewers of his 2008 performance, failing to clear the first hurdle, and injuring his right achilles. After a minute on the track, Liu got up onto his left leg and hopped off the track. Refusing a wheelchair assist and medical attention, he returned to the track and hopped all the way to the final hurdle. Returning to his assigned lane 4, Liu kissed the top of the tenth hurdle, perhaps signifying the end of his Olympic career. He then hopped across the finish line, where he was assisted off the track by heat winner Andy Turner, Balázs Baji and Jackson Quiñónez.

The semi final round was again dominated by Merritt running a 12.94. World record holder and defending champion Dayron Robles led Hansle Parchment to the Jamaican national record in 13.14. 13.31 qualified on time.

In the final, Robles and Merritt got the fastest starts but Merritt pulled ahead at hurdle 3, by hurdle 5 Robles was wincing in pain, pushing over the sixth hurdle and holding his leg. Merritt continued to a personal best 12.92 and a .12 win over reigning world champion Jason Richardson. Parchment took another .02 off his national record for the bronze, the rest of the field was not even close, more than a quarter of a second behind.

Merritt moves past Renaldo Nehemiah to become the #7 hurdler of all time.

Competition format

The Men's 110m Hurdles competition consisted of heats (Round 1), Semifinals and a Final. The fastest competitors from each race in the heats qualified for the Semifinals along with the fastest overall competitors not already qualified that were required to fill the available spaces in the Semifinals.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

The following National record was set during this competition.

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)

Round 1

Qual. rule: first 3 of each heat (Q) plus the 6 fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 3

  • Ali Kamé was disqualified for false starting.
  • Both Andrew Pozzi and Shamar Sands failed to finish the race.
  • Semi Finals

    Qual. rule: first 2 of each heat (Q) plus the 2 fastest times (q) qualified.

    Heat 1

    Wind: Heat 1: -0.5 m/s

    Heat 2

    Wind: Heat 2: +0.1 m/s

    Heat 3

    Wind: Heat 3: +0.1 m/s

    References

    Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's 110 metres hurdles Wikipedia