LONDON: The tune blaring across the stadium sound system was unmistakable: “Jamming” by Bob Marley. The flag the winner paraded around the track was familiar, too: The black, green and gold cross of Jamaica.

That 110-metre hurdler Omar McLeod was at the centre of this celebration on Monday wasn’t all that big a surprise. That McLeod was the first from the island to do the honours at this year’s world athletics championships still feels like something of a shock.

The 23-year-old from Kingston did what Usain Bolt and Elaine Thompson could not the previous nights in the 100 metres namely, powered toward the finish line and left the field behind to bring a gold medal home to a country that has come to expect nothing less.

“I took it upon myself to reroute that and bring that spark back,” said McLeod, who adds this gold medal to his Olympic title from last year. “I’m happy I did that.”

McLeod won in 13.04 seconds, while the world-record holder, American Aries Merritt, finished fifth. It marked the first disappointment of the meet for the US on a straightaway where Justin Gatlin and Tori Bowie won the 100 and Christian Coleman finished second to Gatlin and one spot ahead of Bolt.

The US got shut out of the medals in the 110-metre hurdles for the first time since the world championships were first contested in 1983. That, plus the unlikely notion of McLeod, not Bolt, breaking the ice at the top of the podium for Jamaica were Exhibits 1 and 1a of why they run the races.

“Everyone in the hurdling game is hurdling well,” said Merritt, who was competing in his first major competition since a kidney transplant after the 2015 worlds. “The event is much deeper than it has been in a long time.”

Sergey Shubenkov of Russia finished .1 seconds behind McLeod for the silver medal, though that prize will go in nobody’s column.

Shubenkov came in as the defending world champion, but was not able to compete at the Olympics last year because of the doping scandal that has engulfed his country. He is one of 19 Russians cleared to compete in London this year his anti-doping regimen judged to be robust enough to return to competition.

But with Russia’s track federation still suspended, all 19 of the Russians are competing as neutral athletes. They are wearing aqua, red and pink uniforms with no hint of the Russian flag or any other Russian symbol.

“Not a big deal,” Shubenkov said. “There are a lot of people in my hometown, it’s 4 or 5am., and they’re not sleeping. It means a lot for my family. It means a lot for every person in my country that was watching it, supporting me. The color of the vest doesn’t matter.”

Asked whether doping is still a problem in his home country, Shubenkov insisted “not only in Russia but worldwide.”

“I’m not into the subject, really,” he said. “Since my clearance, I got into my training and I’m not as much into the news as I was last year.”

Other gold medallists on Monday were Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump and Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk in the hammer throw.

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon won the 1,500 metres, while Caster Semenya moved from fifth to third over the last 50 metres to capture the bronze along with a position behind a microphone for the medallists’ news conference.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2017