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After only narrowly retaining his 400m Hurdles world championship
title in Rome in 1987, it was obvious that both age and his younger
rivals were starting to catch up with Edwin Moses, but the champion was
not prepared to surrender his supremacy easily. At the 1988 US Olympic
Trials held in Indianapolis on 17 July, Moses won his fourth consecutive
Olympic Trials final in 47.37sec, his fastest time since 1984 and in
the process beating Andre Phillips (47.58sec) and Kevin Young
(47.72sec).
Although his ten-year winning streak had ended the previous
year, Moses had been undefeated in all 7 of the major championships he
had contested during his career, comprising two Olympic, two World
Championships and three World Cup titles. He went to the 1988 Seoul
Olympic Games determined to preserve that record. After the
preliminaries at Seoul it seemed that his main opposition would come
from compatriots Phillips and Young. In the final on 25 September,
Phillips started well and by the fifth hurdle was just in front of Moses
with Young a close fourth. Amadou Ba (Senegal) was a surprisingly close
third.
The veteran Moses clawed his way back to Phillips around the
final curve, but in the straight Phillips again started to draw clear.
By the tenth hurdle (see photo above), Phillips had an unbeatable
lead, with the tiring Moses just touching down in front of the fast
finishing Ba and Young a clear fourth. Ba passed Moses in the run to
the tape and Moses had to be content with a bronze medal in his last
international competition. That loss marked the end of his great
career. He retired having won 178 of his 187 races in the 400m Hurdles
and owning 13 of the fastest 15 times ever recorded. (Ron Casey)
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