Graham: Local 400m hurdlers have to run faster

DOHA,Qatar:

Although Kevin Young’s 27- year-old world record survived, the men’s 400m hurdles lived up to the billing as Norway’s Karsten Warholm held off American Rai Benjamin to retain his world title.

Track and field fans all over the world believed that the record would go at these championships as the top three finishers have gone under 47 seconds over the past two seasons.

No Jamaican was in the final as the country’s lone entrant, Kemar Mowatt, crashed out at the semi-final stage with his 49.32 effort.

Mowatt’s coach Lennox Graham is pleased with the direction the event is taking.

Qualifying mark

And although he admitted that he was shocked that Mowatt was the only Jamaican who made the qualifying mark to compete at these championships, he believes things will change for the better for the country in the near future.

“ I could not have foreseen that. To see that Mowatt would be the only man to make the qualifying standard is shocking to me. It was not a good year for Jamaica, but I think it is just a matter of time before we get it right again.”

But Graham, who coached former national champion Leford Green, warned that the mindset of 400m hurdlers will have to change as they will have to run faster to get into the top tier of the event.

“It is evident coaches are doing a better job of coaching the event. And like anything else in life, once one person achieves, then everybody else’s mindset changes,” he said.

Yesterday, Warholm stopped the clock at 47.42 seconds, while Benjamin clocked 47.66.

Hometown hero Abderrahman Samba tipped British Virgin Islands’ Kyron McMaster, who is also conditioned by Graham, for the bronze medal. Samba clocked 48.03, while McMaster registered 48.10.