By Nick Mulvenney
TOKYO (Reuters) – Cordell Tinch took the long road to elite athletics but capped a superb second season as a professional by winning 110 metres hurdles gold at the world championships on another sweltering Tokyo night on Tuesday.
The American was all control and pace as he blazed over the 10 hurdles and held off the fast finishers in the run-in to claim his first global title at his first global championships in 12.99 seconds.
“When I crossed the finish line I felt relieved,” the 25-year-old said.
“I came into this season with the goal of winning the world title. I wanted to be the best hurdler in the world.
“Being the only one to run sub-13 today makes me happy. I believed I was the best out there, so I didn’t feel any pressure. People expected me to panic but I stayed focused.”
Orlando Bennett ran a personal best 13.08 to win silver, while his fellow Jamaican Tyler Mason took the bronze in 13.12, which matched his previous best time.
“I was really trying to beat Cordell, but that wasn’t the case,” said Bennett. “The race was just an adrenaline rush. I wanted to get through the hurdles and keep going.”
Olympic gold medallist Grant Holloway’s six-year reign as world champion ended earlier on Tuesday when the American finished sixth in his semi-final, guaranteeing a fresh champion in the event.
Tinch could not have imagined it would be him in late 2022 when he was a cellphone salesman in his home town Green Bay, having given up first a college football scholarship and then a shot at Division I athletics.
He returned to the track at Pitt State in 2023 and impressed in the high hurdles sufficiently to turn professional last year, only mid-season surgery denying him the momentum to claim a spot on the U.S. team for the Olympics.
This season, however, he has dominated his event and Tinch’s sizzling 12.87 at the Shanghai/Keqiao Diamond League in May made him the joint-fourth fastest man of all time with Cuba’s 2008 Olympic champion Dayron Robles.
“Keeping the medal with America is fantastic,” Tinch added. “I stepped away from the track for a couple of years but I am not regretting it at all.
“If I hadn’t taken that break from the track, I wouldn’t be a world champion now. Everything I learned at that time away from the sport made me the man I am and a world champion.”
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Ken Ferris)
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