400m hurdles

[speedster]

Brutal's comments on the weekend got me thinking about areas of athleticswhere whites were once prominent.One event that was dominated by whites that isn't mentioned much is the 400m hurdles.Not that there weren't any blacks participating and doing well,but this event was clearly white friendly.As late as 1972,when you look at the OT trials,it was mostly white led by the great Ralph Mann.But just 4 years later the OT became more of an even mix.It was like Edwin Moses came on the scene and that changed how a 400m hurldler should be like.By the 1980 OT it had totally changed and it was now just about all black and that is how it has been ever since.The 400m hurdles were the last bastion of white supremacy in track before the caste system took over there just like in all other of the sprints.With such a rich history of white hurdlers in the 400 we are know supposed to believe that whites can no longer compete.I'm sure guys like brutal will give you some excuse that blacks lacked technique in the hurdles and thats why whites dominated for so long and once they received the proper training they took over,I disagree.I just find it amazing how quickly that event went from mostly white to all black.

 

[white lightning]

I believe that is the event that Joey Woody runs for
the US and he is white.Take a look at South Africa in
the 400 Hurdles.They have about 3 or 4 studs that can
run with anyone in the world and they are all white.The
youngest of them all is LJ Van Zyl and he has won his
last 3 races.He is only 19.

 

[surfsider]

The winner of the silver in '76 behind Moses was Mike Shine a white sprinter from, I believe, Penn State. Harald Schmid of Germany ran in Moses's shadow his entire career and was the last man to defeat Moses before the streak started in '77.

 

[surfsider]

Some of the white South Africans haven't gotten it through their thick heads that they don't have the athletic ability to compete against blacks.

Result of the 400 Hurdles in Rome

1van Zyl L.J. RSA 48.2420
2Clement Kerron USA 48.2616
3Carter James USA 48.3114
4McFarlane Danny JAM 49.3612
5Williams Derrick USA 49.6310
6Sánchez Felix DOM 49.648
7Tamesue Dai JPN 49.816
8Ferguson Kenneth USA 52.494

 

[surfsider]

South Africans dominate 400 hurdles at African Games.

http://iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=39883.html

 

[waterbed]

only whites on the page

 

[Colonel Callan]

Last year I believe a Greek athlete was ranked #1 in the world. Van Zyl is quite a talent, very young. Woody is actually up there age-wise and is close to the end. Overall the event has seen some great white athletes - in many cases it has been whites who were shut out of the flat 400, so the only way they could still run a sprint was to hit the hurdles. Look at Harold Schmid. Besides being right there with Moses, he was ranked #1 in the world in the flat 400 one year and also had one of the fastest 800 meter runs in the world in a different year, 1:44.9 - without being a guy who trained specifically for the event. Amazing talent.

 

[freedom1]

http://www.iaaf.org/WCH07/news/Kind=2/newsId=39974.html

 

[jacknyc]

Adam Kunkel of Canada won the 400m hurdles at the Pan Am Games in a great time of 48.24.
That puts him among the world's elite with Van Zyl and the Greek, Iakovakis.