Pitman dominates 400m hurdles semis

27 July 2002

Jana Pitman runs the fastest 400m hurdle for a teenager.

Sinead Dudgeon qualifies as fastest loser.

Jana Pitman (54.14) qualified for the women’s 400m hurdles final in record time for a teenager.

She was fastest over both the heats, with the Jamaicans, Debbie Ann-Harris and Deon Hemmings (55.78) also going through.

English number 1, Natasha Danvers (56.12) who has not yet reached her lifetime best of under 56 seconds, will have to improve to get in the medals in the final.

Danvers said: “I don’t think I pushed hard enough. I could have hurdled a lot quicker.”

Pitman commented afterwards:“That’s got to be the easiest 400m Hurdles I’ve run because I didn’t make any mistakes. I know Debbie won her Olympic gold by one 1/100th of a second and I know that the only thing that let me down at the Paris Grand Prix was one technical little error. So I decided to go out and run the race like I was going to run the final and just ease up over the last 30m.”

Local girl, Katie Jones of Salford failed to qualify.