Written by Kurt Morris
CARSON –Olympic gold medallist Angelo Taylor was fuming after the men’s 400m hurdles race here at The Home Depot Center, after meet officials failed to assemble the eighth flight of hurdles correctly.
Taylor posted 48.70 to finish second to fellow countryman Kerron Clement, who took the race in a world-leading 48.38 seconds.
The Olympic champion came off the corner just behind Clement and Felix Sanchez and was looking to make one of his blinding finishes before losing his rhythm off the seventh flight of hurdles, which left him unhappy.
"Whoever is in charge of putting up the hurdles needs to be fired," a frustrated Taylor told reporters afterwards. "I could have stayed at home today. I feel sick, man. That race doesn’t count.
"I knew there was something wrong when I came off (hurdle) seven. I just lost focus."
Despite losing the chance of running an event faster time, Clement was still happy to come away with the win.
"The eighth hurdle was kind of off but I didn’t let it affect me at all. I just kept my foot down low. It was easy because I was a 110 hurdler in college so I know how to tuck my legs down."
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