Athletics at the 2000 Summer Olympics – Men's 110 metres hurdles

After a false start eliminated nobody, on the second try the field started even. Anier Garcia accelerated his first few steps better and gained a few centimeter lead over the first barrier, which he rattled. Typically fast starting Terrence Trammell was just slightly awkward on his second step losing a slight amount of ground. Defending champion Allen Johnson was close to Garcia, and even after clobbering the first two hurdles, he was pulling even. The entire lead group hit the third hurdle, by now Johnson and Garcia had a clear lead, with Trammell a clear third place. Johnson continued to hit hurdles, losing ground to Garcia, while Mark Crear was emerging ahead of world record holder Colin Jackson by not touching his hurdles while Jackson hit hurdle 4 awkwardly enough to pull him out of contention. Johnson hit the ninth hurdle with his lead heel, not even close to getting over the hurdle. The awkwardness of riding the last hurdle down to the ground lost his forward momentum. Garcia had a metre and a half lead at the finish over Trammell, and while Crear did hit the last hurdle he was able to beat Johnson to the line for bronze.

This was the 24th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The top four finishers from 1996 all returned, along with one other finalist: gold medalist Allen Johnson and silver medalist Mark Crear of the United States, bronze medalist Florian Schwarthoff of Germany (who had also finished fifth in 1992), fourth-place finisher Colin Jackson of Great Britain, and seventh-place finisher Kyle Vander-Kuyp of Australia. Jackson had been in the last three finals, taking silver in 1988 and seventh in 1992. As in 1996, the favorites were Johnson and Jackson (winners of the last four world championships), though Anier Garcia of Cuba had emerged as a challenger after taking second in the 1999 worlds.[2]

Barbados, Liberia, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Trinidad and Tobago each made their first appearance in the event. The United States made its 23rd appearance, most of any nation (having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games).

Each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run 13.70 seconds or faster during the qualification period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run 13.85 seconds or faster could be entered.[3]

The competition used the four-round format previously used in 1960 and since 1988, still using the eight-man semifinals and finals used since 1964. The "fastest loser" system, also introduced in 1964, was used in the first round.

The top four runners in each of the initial six heats automatically qualified for the second round. The next eight fastest runners from across the heats also qualified. Those 32 runners competed in 4 heats in the quarterfinals, with the top four runners from each heat qualifying for the semifinals. There were two semifinals, and only the top four from each heat advanced to the final.[2][4]

These were the standing world and Olympic records (in seconds) prior to the 2000 Summer Olympics.

World record	Colin Jackson (GBR)	12.91	Stuttgart, Germany	20 August 1993
Olympic record	Allen Johnson (USA)	12.95	Atlanta, United States	29 July 1996

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition. The following national records were established during the competition:

Nation	Athlete	Round	Time
Haiti	Dudley Dorival	Heat 2	13.33
São Tomé and Príncipe	Arlindo Pinheiro	Heat 6	15.65
Cuba	Anier García	Final	13.00

All times are Australian Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10)

• Source: Official Report of the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics available at https://web.archive.org/web/20080522105330/http://www.la84foundation.org/5va/reports_frmst.htm