Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 110 metres hurdles

Men's 110 metres hurdles at the Games of the XXXI Olympiad
Interior view of the Estádio Olímpico João Havelange, where the Men's 110m hurdles took place.
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Dates	15 August 2016 (heats) 16 August 2016 (semi-final & final)
Competitors	41 from 27 nations
Winning time	13.05
Medalists
Omar McLeod  Jamaica Orlando Ortega  Spain Dimitri Bascou  France

Official Video

The men's 110 metres hurdles event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 15–16 August at the Olympic Stadium.

Summary

The 2012 Olympic champion Aries Merritt did not return after failing at the American Olympic Trials – an event which also excluded Olympic medallists David Oliver and Jason Richardson. With Sergey Shubenkov absent due to the Russian team's doping ban and an injury to Hansle Parchment, none of the 2012 Olympic or 2015 World Championships podium athletes was present. The top entrant was Omar McLeod, who held the season-leading time of 12.98 seconds and won 60 m hurdles gold at the 2016 World Indoor Championships. Devon Allen, an American college football player, was his nation's trials winner and ranked second globally on 13.03 seconds, just ahead of Cuban-Spaniard Orlando Ortega. France and the United States provided the next fastest entrants in Dimitri Bascou, Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, Ronnie Ash and Jeff Porter.

The final started with all eight competitors reaching the first hurdle virtually at the same time. In the center of the track Omar McLeod touching down fractionally ahead of Dimitri Bascou and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde the two Frenchmen who sandwiched him and Milan Trajkovic in lane 8. Going into the second hurdle Bascou gained the fractional edge, but the three in the center of the track ran almost in synchronization for five hurdles, pulling away from the rest of the field. By the sixth hurdle, McLeod had again gained the fractional edge. McLeod continued smoothly but Martinot-Lagarde hit the sixth hurdle and Bascou was awkward going into the seventh hurdle giving McLeod the break away. Over the next two hurdles, McLeod extended his lead as Orlando Ortega and Ronnie Ash began to emerge ahead of the row of hurdlers across the track. Ash hit the ninth hurdle so badly when he arrived at the tenth hurdle he was short, his lead foot hitting the barrier at toe level, knocking the hurdle over and knocking Ash off balance, still in third place but falling. McLeod continued to finish with more than a metre lead over Ortega. Bascou had the lead over his teammate Martinot-Lagarde and American footballer Devon Allen. Ash took several awkward steps and somersaulted over the finish line in last, only to be disqualified for not properly clearing the hurdle.

The following evening the medals were presented by Richard Peterkin, IOC member, Saint Lucia and Bernard Amsalem, Council Member of the IAAF.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Aries Merritt (USA)	12.80	Brussels, Belgium	7 September 2012
Olympic record	Liu Xiang (CHN)	12.91	Athens, Greece	27 August 2004

Area
	Time (s)	Wind	Athlete	Nation
Africa (records)	13.24	+0.3	Lehann Fourie	South Africa
Asia (records)	12.88	+1.1	Liu Xiang	China
Europe (records)	12.91	+0.5	Colin Jackson	Great Britain
North, Central America and Caribbean (records)	12.80 WR	+0.3	Aries Merritt	United States
Oceania (records)	13.29	+0.6	Kyle Vander Kuyp	Australia
South America (records)	13.27	+1.6	Paulo Villar	Colombia

Schedule

All times are Brasilia Time (UTC-3)

Date	Time	Round
Monday, 15 August 2016	20:40	Heats
Tuesday, 16 August 2016	20:40 22:45	Semifinals Finals

Format

The competition was divided into three rounds: a heats stage with five races, three semi-final races, and a final. The top three from each heat will qualify for the semi-final, plus the nine fastest non-qualifiers. The top two finishers from each of the semi-finals qualifies for the final, as do the two fastest non-qualifiers.

The first two rounds were run in the rain. It was determined the non-qualifiers from those heats were disadvantaged in time comparison, and those athletes were allowed to run in a repechage round to improve their qualifying time. Two athletes Deuce Carter and Alexander John had been disqualified for failure to properly clear hurdles in those earlier races and were allowed to re-enter. Carter qualified for the semi-finals from the special race.

Results

Heats

Qualification rule: first 4 of each heat (Q) plus the 4 fastest times (q) qualified.

Heat 1

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	2	Omar McLeod	Jamaica	13.27	Q
2	7	Jeff Porter	United States	13.50	Q
3	9	Jeffrey Julmis	Haiti	13.66	Q
4	8	Antwon Hicks	Nigeria	13.70	Q
5	4	Yeison Rivas	Colombia	13.84
6	6	Wataru Yazawa	Japan	13.89
7	3	Kame Ali	Madagascar	14.89	SB
–	5	Alexander John	Germany	DQ	R168.7
				Wind: +0.1 m/s

Heat 2

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	8	Orlando Ortega	Spain	13.32	Q
2	3	Balázs Baji	Hungary	13.52	Q
3	5	Milan Trajkovic	Cyprus	13.59	Q
4	2	Johnathan Cabral	Canada	13.63	Q
5	9	Jhoanis Portilla	Cuba	13.81
6	6	Matthias Buhler	Germany	13.82
7	4	Xaysa Anousone	Laos	14.40
–	7	Deuce Carter	Jamaica	DQ	R168.7
				Wind: +0.4 m/s

Heat 3

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	4	Dimitri Bascou	France	13.31	Q
2	9	Andrew Pozzi	Great Britain	13.50	Q
3	6	Andrew Riley	Jamaica	13.52	Q
4	8	João Vítor de Oliveira	Brazil	13.63	Q, SB
5	3	Antonio Alkana	South Africa	13.64	q
6	2	Petr Svoboda	Czech Republic	13.65	q[a]
7	7	Mikel Thomas	Trinidad and Tobago	13.68
8	5	Eddie Lovett	Virgin Islands	13.77
				Wind: +1.4 m/s

Heat 4

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	2	Konstadinos Douvalidis	Greece	13.41	Q
2	9	Devon Allen	United States	13.41	Q
3	5	Gregor Traber	Germany	13.50	Q
4	6	Yordan O'Farrill	Cuba	13.56	Q
5	7	Yidiel Contreras	Spain	13.62	q
6	4	Ronald Forbes	Cayman Islands	14.67
7	8	Ahmad Hazer	Lebanon	15.50
–	3	Wilhem Belocian	France	DQ	R162.7
				Wind: +0.1 m/s

Heat 5

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	9	Ronnie Ash	United States	13.31	Q
2	3	Pascal Martinot-Lagarde	France	13.36	Q
3	5	Lawrence Clarke	Great Britain	13.55	Q
4	8	Éder Antônio Souza	Brazil	13.61	Q, SB
5	2	Damian Czykier	Poland	13.63	q
6	7	Milan Ristic	Serbia	13.66
7	4	Xie Wenjun	China	13.69
8	6	Sekou Kaba	Canada	13.70
				Wind: −0.2 m/s

Heat 6 Repechage

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	9	Deuce Carter	Jamaica	13.51	q
2	4	Yeison Rivas	Colombia	13.87
3	6	Wataru Yazawa	Japan	13.88
4	8	Matthias Buhler	Germany	13.90
5	2	Alexander John	Germany	14.13
–	7	Jhoanis Portilla	Cuba	DQ	R168.7
–	3	Kame Ali	Madagascar	DNS
–	5	Xaysa Anousone	Laos	DNS
				Wind: −0.1 m/s

Notes

^a Petr Svoboda was originally disqualified under Rule 168.7. His advancement later to the semi-finals indicates a reversal of that decision.

Semfinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	7	Orlando Ortega	Spain	13.32	Q
2	5	Ronnie Ash	United States	13.36	Q
3	2	Damian Czykier	Poland	13.50
4	6	Balázs Baji	Hungary	13.52
5	4	Andrew Pozzi	Great Britain	13.67
6	3	Deuce Carter	Jamaica	13.69
7	8	Yordan O'Farrill	Cuba	13.70
–	9	Jeffrey Julmis	Haiti	DQ	R168.7
				Wind: +0.5 m/s

Semifinal 2

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	7	Omar McLeod	Jamaica	13.15	Q
2	5	Pascal Martinot-Lagarde	France	13.25	Q
3	6	Devon Allen	United States	13.36	q
4	9	Johnathan Cabral	Canada	13.41	q
5	4	Gregor Traber	Germany	13.43
6	8	Lawrence Clarke	Great Britain	13.46
7	2	Antonio Alkana	South Africa	13.55
8	1	Petr Svoboda	Czech Republic	13.67
9	3	João Vítor de Oliveira	Brazil	13.85
				Wind: −0.1 m/s

Semifinal 3

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	5	Dimitri Bascou	France	13.23	Q
2	8	Milan Trajkovic	Cyprus	13.31	Q
3	4	Jeff Porter	United States	13.45
4	6	Andrew Riley	Jamaica	13.46
5	7	Konstadinos Douvalidis	Greece	13.47
6	3	Yidiel Contreras	Spain	13.54
7	2	Antwon Hicks	Nigeria	14.26
–	9	Éder Antônio Souza	Brazil	DQ	R168.7
				Wind: +0.3 m/s

Final

Rank	Lane	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	5	Omar McLeod	Jamaica	13.05
	7	Orlando Ortega	Spain	13.17
	6	Dimitri Bascou	France	13.24
4	4	Pascal Martinot-Lagarde	France	13.29
5	3	Devon Allen	United States	13.31
6	2	Johnathan Cabral	Canada	13.40
7	8	Milan Trajkovic	Cyprus	13.41
–	9	Ronnie Ash	United States	DQ	R168.7
				Wind: +0.2 m/s