Athletics: Fredericks becomes oldest track champion

MANCHESTER - Namibia's Frankie Fredericks became the oldest man to win a Commonwealth Games track title on Monday when he won the 200m final at the age of 34.

Fredericks, double Olympic silver medallist at both the 1992 and 1996 Games, came through smoothly on the straight to win in 20.06 seconds from England's Marlon Devonish and Darren Campbell in an extremely close finish.

Campbell, England's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony, led out of the bend but the Namibian accelerated away to win the gold.

The previous oldest man to win a track medal at the Games was England's former Olympic sprint champion Linford Christie who won the 100m at the 1994 Victoria Games at 34. Fredericks is five months older than Christie was then.

Devonish took the silver in 20.19sec and Campbell the bronze in 20.21sec, the same time given to fourth-placed Dominic Demeritte of Bahamas.

Fredericks had won his semi-final in convincing style but was given a run for his money in the final.

Mens 400m Hurdles final:

1 Chris Rawlinson (Eng) 49.14, 2 Matthew Elias (Wal) 49.28, 3 Ian Weakley (Jam) 49.69, 4 Anthony Borsumato (Eng) 49.72, 5 Dinsdale Morgan (Jam) 50.14, 6 Willie Smith (Nam) 50.14, 7 Ashoka Jayasundra (Sri) 50.63, 8 Matt Douglas (Eng) 51.01

- REUTERS

Full coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/manchester2002

Medal table

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