Athletics: A nerve-racking 1999 - the year the action went down to the wire: Jackson's dip conquers all at global summit

World Athletics Championships in Seville 110 metres hurdles

FINISHING HAS always been one of Colin Jackson's great strengths.

Even when he was a junior, vying for high hurdles titles with the man whose career was so cruelly compromised by injury, Jon Ridgeon, the Welshman would dip so low at the line that he risked going under the photo-electric timing beam.

Which is not to say that starting has been a weakness in the confused career of this 32-year-old who, last summer in Spain became the first Briton to win a global athletics title since Jonathan Edwards had taken the triple jump to new lengths in the 1995 World Championships.

Jackson, after all, was the man Linford Christie trained with when he wanted to sharpen up on getting smartly out of the blocks.

But it is Jackson's ability to produce a final surge of supreme effort that has always marked him out from the crowd, making him the finest hurdler of his generation - albeit that he has so far failed to win an Olympic title.

It was this ability which finally tipped things his way in Seville in August as he regained the world title he had won in setting the current world 110 metres hurdles record of 12.91sec in 1993.

By the time he got to Spain, Jackson had already revived a career that had appeared to be dipping over the horizon following his disappointments at the 1996 Olympics.

An unexpected silver behind America's Olympic champion, Allen Johnson, at the '97 World Championships, a third European title in 1998 and a world indoor title in January of this year allowed him to travel with confidence. Particularly as Johnson, the competitor he described as his "Voodoo man", was carrying a calf injury which eventually forced him to scratch from the semi-finals.

But, as ever, the United States had plenty more rivals to fill the gap.

Jackson already had a good idea about the quality of the Americans' rising generation. His world indoor title had been won by a margin of just 0.02sec as he had beaten the US contender Reggie Torian with a dip that prefigured his greater triumph seven months later.

By the time Jackson lined up for his final, another US contender, Mark Crear, had joined Johnson on the sidelines after being disqualified from his heat. As Jackson acknowledged afterwards, this was a perfect opportunity.

But he still had to take it, and two men stood in his way - Duane Ross, of the US, and Cuba's former world indoor champion Anier Garcia.

As the three men cleared the final hurdle they were virtually inseparable, but, as so often before, Jackson made those final metres tell before lunging over the line jack-knifed at the hip, and staggering to retain his balance.

He did not dare to celebrate until the scoreboard confirmed the result - Jackson, by 0.03sec.

MIKE ROWBOTTOM