South African 400-hurdles champion, LJ van Zyl, came fourth in 49.13s at the Diamond League Meeting in Shanghai yesterday. It is his fastest time so far this season. The Tuks/hpc athlete impressed with the way he started to fight back at the last two hurdles, missing out on finishing third by merely 0.02s.

According to Van Zyl, the mistake he made was to dip too early.

“I am happy with how strong I felt going over the last two hurdles. Unfortunately, I made a tactical error in the final moments of the race which probably prevented me from getting a top-three finish,” said the Tuks/hpc athlete.

A finely timed second half and accelerating at precisely the right moment gave US Olympic champion, Michael Tinsley, victory in a season’s best time over Patryk Dobek from Poland, who was surprisingly in second place.  Kenya’s world champion, Nicholas Bett, was sixth.

In a flash quote on the IAAF Diamond League website, Michael Tinsley said: "It was a good start to the season. I really wanted to execute that second bend and I felt I did it quite well. I was under a lot of pressure down the home straight and it was good that I was able to hold my competitors off."

Photo Credit: Reg Caldecott