Athletics: Jackson's run of wins ends

Colin Jackson's winning streak in the hurdles ended yesterday when he was beaten by the American, Allen Johnson, in a photo-finish at the Jose Maria Cagigal Memorial indoor meet ing in Madrid.

Jackson, the British world champion who last lost a hurdles race in August 1993, and Johnson both clocked 7.42 seconds in the 60-metre hurdles, but Johnson was declared the winner with the fastest time in the world this year.

Jackson had extended his sequence to 44 races, indoors and outdoors, when he had won his heat earlier in the evening in a time of 7.54. Johnson clocked 7.49 in his heat.

Jackson, also the world record holder, last lost a hurdles race when another American, Jack Pierce, beat him at an outdoor meeting in Berlin on August 27, 1993.

Johnson, a former National Collegiate Athletic Association champion from North Carolina, had nearly ended Jackson's remarkable run of victories on Sunday when another photo-finish had resulted in the Briton being declared the winner at a meeting in Frankfurt, Germany. Both hurdlers had clocked 7.44.