Derrick ADKINS

After his narrow victory over Samuel Matete (Zambia) in the previous year's World Championships, there was a lot of interest to see if Derrick Adkins could repeat this result at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Adkins and Matete met five times in 1996 prior to the Olympics, with the Zambian athlete winning four of the five encounters. However, in the Olympic final on 1 August, Adkins turned the tables on Matete, winning (see photo above) in a time of 47.54sec, which equalled his personal best set the previous year. Matete finished second in a time of 47.78sec. Following the Olympics, Adkins and Matete continued their rivalry in Europe, competing against each other on six different occasions with honours even at three wins apiece, although it could be argued that Adkins performed slightly better, as one of his wins was the Grand Prix final at Milan on 7 September.

In the three years from 1994 to 1996, Adkins encountered Matete on 35 occasions, with the honours narrowly in Adkins favour 18 to 17. As the reigning World and Olympic champion, Adkins' performances severely declined during 1997. At the US national championships at Indianapolis on 15 June, he ran his fastest time of the year (48.00sec) when finishing second to Bryan Bronson. At his fourth World Championships appearance at Athens on August 3, Adkins could only finish fifth in his semi-final in 48.95sec, and thus missed the final for the first time at a World Championships. Adkins continued to compete in subsequent years, but it was obvious that his glory days were over. His best time in 1998 was 48.72sec which he recorded in finishing second in a minor meet in Japan, and in 1999 he produced his fastest time of 48.71sec when winning a race at Walnut on 18 April. (Ron Casey)

As his father, Earl, had been a hurdler, it was probably no surprise that Derrick Adkins started to display his hurdling ability at a an early age. In June 1991 he finished third in the 400m hurdles at the US national championships in 48.60sec, breaking 49 seconds for the first time, and qualifying for the World Championships in Tokyo. Before the World Championships, he travelled to Sheffield where he won the World Student Games by over a second in 49.01sec. Up against much more experienced hurdlers in Tokyo, Adkins finished a creditable sixth in his first World Championships. Despite winning an early season meet in April 1992 in 48.64sec, he did not improve upon this time during the remainder of the year and did not compete at the Olympic Games. In 1993, he repeated his 1991 victory in the World Student Games at Buffalo in 49.35sec and two weeks before the World Championships he lowered his personal best to 48.39sec.

At the World Championships, in Stuttgart, in his second World Championships final, he finished seventh in 49.07sec. Adkins made a dramatic improvement during 1994, not only breaking 48 seconds for the first time, but doing it on eight separate occasions. He produced the fastest three times of the year and his best time of 47.70sec, achieved at Linz on 4 July, moved him to tenth on the all-time world list. A month before the 1995 World Champs, held in Gothenburg, Adkins set a new personal best of 47.54sec in finishing a close second at Lausanne behind Stephane Diagana (France), who also set a personal best of 47.37sec. Samuel Matete of Zambia was third in 47.80sec. At Gothenburg, Adkins easily won his heat on 7 August (see photo above), and three days later, won an exciting final from Matete and Diagana in 47.98sec. (Ron Casey)