Lawrence Clarke to fly Team GB flag in 110m hurdles

 

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Britain's Lawrence Clarke, who was educated at Eton and is a distant relation of former US president Theodore Roosevelt, tonight powered into the final of the 110m hurdles at London 2012.

Clarke, nicknamed 'toff of the track' due to his privileged background, finished third in the opening semi-final behind American Jason Richardson and Cuba's Orlando Ortega in a personal best of 13.31 seconds.

The 22-year-old then faced an anxious wait to see if that would be good enough to qualify as one of two fastest losers, and made it by 0.03secs ahead of China's Wenjun Xie.

Team-mate Andy Turner, the former European champion, was joint 13th fastest overall after finishing fourth in the second semi-final in 13.42s.

A furious Turner told BBC1: "It was rubbish that. The start was absolutely shocking. I don't know what happened. I've let myself down and let my coach down. I'm gutted. I didn't feel as nervous today. I really believed that I could make the final. [But] I've had a rubbish season from start to finish. I feel like I've let people down."

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