Kevin Young's 1992 season had been nothing short of sensational. He had
been unbeaten in the 400m hurdles throughout the year, and at the
Olympic Games in Barcelona, he had smashed the once thought unbreakable
world record of Edwin Moses by a whopping 0.24sec, setting a new mark of
46.78sec. Young continued this superiority over his rivals into the
following season, eventually building a winning streak of 25, before he
was narrowly defeated (0.01sec) by Samuel Matete (Zambia) at London on
23 July. Young's favouritism for the World Championships at Stuttgart
took another jolt from his two closest rivals from the previous year,
Matete and Winthrop Graham (Jamaica), in his final two races before the
biggest meet of the year. In the first, at Zurich on 4 August, Graham
won from Matete and Young, while three days later at Monaco, Matete
defeated Young again, with Graham filling third place.
This clearly
made the three athletes the favourites to share the medals at Stuttgart,
where Young easily won his first round heat (see photo above) on
16 August. The expectation for an exciting final increased when
Graham, Matete and Young were the respective winners of the three
semi-finals the following day. However in the final, Young again showed
that he could rise to the big occasion, making a decisive move between
hurdles 7 and 8, and holding his lead until the finish, which he reached
ahead of Matete and Graham in 47.18sec, the fastest time produced in
1993, and his second fastest time ever behind his world record. Young
ended his 1994 season after only two meetings, after failing to make the
final at the US national championships. He continued to compete for
another few years, but nowhere near the level of his 1992 and 1993
seasons. (Ron Casey)
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