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Colin Jackson had been trying for seven years to win a gold medal at one
of athletics two majors - the Olympic Games and the World
Championships. A bronze medal in 1987 at the World Championships
followed by a silver medal at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, when he was
still just aged 21, suggested he was destined to become a great champion
one day. But events had thus far not turned out quite as he would have
wished. A poor seventh at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 compelled
observers to question whether he had the mental make up to take on the
world's best and beat them all.
However, at the 1993 World Championships
in Stuttgart Colin put those doubts firmly to rest. Not only did he win
the gold medal but he also broke Roger Kingdom's 1989 World record time
of 12.92sec. by .01sec. Not Roger Kingdom, Greg Foster or Mark McKoy
would have challenged him on that glorious night in Germany, though
second-placed athlete Tony Jarrett rose to the occasion setting his
lifetime best of 13.00sec. a time only Jackson bettered through 1992 (the picture above shows Colin clearing the last hurdle in the final ahead of Jarrett).
Needless to say the name of Jackson stood once again on the top of the
world 110mH ranking lists but this time his ranking was consolidated
by the status of world champion. During 1993 he clocked two other
sub-13sec. performances and a total of thirteen sub-13.20sec. He also
beat Olympic champion Mark McKoy four times out of five. He was voted
the IAAF International Male Athlete of the Year, ahead of Noureddine
Morceli, but fellow World Champion Linford Christie beat him in the
B.B.C. T.V.'s Sports Personality of the Year poll. (George Herringshaw)
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