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 Winthrop Graham

DATE OF BIRTH

Wednesday, 17th November 1965

PLACE OF BIRTH

St. Elizabeth

EVENT(S):

400m Hurdles, 4x400m

CHAMPIONSHIP PERFORMANCES:

Olympics: 1988 silver 4x400m, 1992 silver 400m Hurdles. Worlds: 1991 silver 400m Hurdles, bronze 4x400m, 1993 bronze 400m Hurdles.

During 1992, Winthrop Graham and Samuel Matete (Zambia) had waged an intriguing battle for supremacy in the 400m hurdles, although they had both been clearly overshadowed by Kevin Young (USA) who had won the Olympic gold medal in world record time ahead of Graham in second place. Young continued this superiority over his rivals into the following season, eventually building a winning streak of 25, before Matete narrowly defeated him at London on 23 July. Young's favouritism for the World Championships at Stuttgart took another jolt in his final two races before the biggest meet of the year. In the first, at Zurich on 4 August, Graham won from Matete and Young in a new Jamaican record and career best time of 47.60sec. Three days later at Monaco, Matete defeated Young again, with Graham third. This clearly made the three athletes the favourites to share the medals at Stuttgart, where Graham easily won his first round heat on 16 August. The expectation for an exciting final increased when Graham, Matete and Young were the respective winners of the three semi-finals the following day. In the final, Young produced the fastest time of the year to win the gold medal, while Graham only narrowly lost the battle for silver with Matete, clocking his second fastest time ever of 47.62sec. Although Graham was still competitive in the following years, he never again regained the level he had enjoyed in 1992 and 1993. He was the third fastest performer in 1994 with his time of 48.05sec recorded at Linz on 4 July, but in the following year's World Championships in Gothenburg, he was disqualified due to a trailing leg violation in his semi-final. His last Olympic appearance at Atlanta in 1996 was not a happy one, as he was eliminated during the first round heats. (Ron Casey) 

Winthrop Graham Winning Silver at the Barcelona Olympics