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Eight years after winning his first Olympic 400m Hurdles gold medal at
Montreal in 1976, Edwin Moses finally got his opportunity to win a
second title at Los Angeles in 1984, having been denied the chance in
1980 due to the US boycott of the Moscow Olympic Games. To win at Los
Angeles, he knew he would have to again beat his old rival Harald Schmid
(West Germany), but another threat to his supremacy had emerged during
1984 in the form of 18 year-old compatriot Danny Harris.
Harris had
broken the World Junior Record five times during 1984 prior to the
Olympic Games, including a fastest time of 48.02sec which he recorded in
finishing second to Moses (47.58sec) in a semi-final of the US Olympic
Trials on 17 June. The Trials final held the next day produced another
fast race, with the older Moses again prevailing (47.76sec to 48.11sec
for Harris). In the Olympic final at Los Angeles on 3 August Moses drew
lane 6, with his two major threats, Harris and Schmid, inside of him in
lanes 4 and 5 respectively. Moses got away to his usual fast start
with Schmid trying to stay in contact, but by the fifth hurdle, Moses
already had a lead of half a second (21.1sec to 21.6sec for Schmid).
Moses maintained that lead around the final curve and up the home
straight, with Schmid more concerned about the fast finishing Harris in
the closing stages. Moses won easily in the end, easing up in the final
5 metres to enjoy the adulation of the home crowd, eventually crossing
the line in 47.75sec, with Harris second (48.13sec) just ahead of Schmid
(48.19sec). It was Moses' 90th consecutive finals victory since losing
to Schmid at Berlin in August 1977. (Ron Casey)
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