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Freddie Crittenden finished his heat nearly five seconds behind the winner. Alamy Stock Photo

US 110m hurdles star jogs his way through bizarre Olympic heat

Freddie Crittenden said jogging through his heat was the ‘smart choice’ as he fends off injury.

USA STAR FREDDIE Crittenden, regarded as one of the main medal hopefuls in the men’s 110m hurdles, deliberately jogged through his opening round heat to buy himself time to recover from an injury.

In a bizarre performance, Crittenden never attempted to be competitive on Sunday morning, finishing last by a distance in 18.27 seconds — nearly five full seconds behind heat winner Louis Francois Mendy of Senegal.

The 29-year-old’s tactics were made possible by the decision to introduce second-chance repechage rounds in some track events for those who do not qualify automatically out of their opening heats.

Crittenden only needed to finish the race in order to guarantee a place in Tuesday’s repechage where, if fully fit, he would be expected to be comfortably good enough to book his place in the semi-finals. 

“It was an intentional choice,” he confirmed in an interview with US broadcaster NBC afterwards, saying he felt it was “a smart choice [to] give my body time to recover a little bit from being aggravated”.

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