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In 1988, Roger Kingdom had made a triumphant return to hurdling after a
long-term injury, setting a personal best of 12.97sec at the high
altitude resort of Sestriere, and then to assuage detractors of that
mark, he recorded a time of 12.98sec at sea level when retaining his
Olympic title in Seoul. These two times were the second and third
fastest times on the all-time world list, only surpassed by Renaldo
Nehemiah's 12.92sec world record. In 1989, Kingdom won his third
national title at Houston on 16 June, before embarking on an extended
and successful tour of Europe.
Although Roger looked relaxed in the
photo above taken at the Bislett Games in Oslo on 1 July, he displayed a
much greater sense of urgency at the Weltklasse meet in Zurich on 16
August, where he defeated Colin Jackson (Great Britain) in a new world
record time of 12.92sec. Apart from that performance, the highlight of
Kingdom's season occurred at the World Cup in Barcelona on 10 September,
where he again defeated Jackson in a wind-assisted time of 12.87sec,
the fastest time ever run under any conditions. Kingdom had somewhat of
a patchy year in 1990, as he valiantly tried to prevent Jackson from
usurping his mantle as the world's premier hurdler. Roger was in
excellent form early in the season, winning his third successive
national title at Norwalk on 15 June.
Exactly one week later, he was in
Portsmouth, competing in a three-way international between the USA, UK
and Kenya, where he defeated Jackson in a wind-assisted time of
13.11sec. Kingdom incurred several losses in the remainder of his
European campaign that season, although he did record a significant
victory at Zurich, on 15 August, ahead of most of the world's top
hurdlers including Jackson. (Ron Casey)
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