Why USA star Freddie Crittenden finished 110m hurdles last on purpose

The 29-year-old was in no rush to cross the finish line, jogging his way to a time of 18.27s and a long way behind his closest rival.

However, it was all part of the plan as the American is not quite fully fit and he didn’t want to push himself too hard and really injure himself.

The repechage has been introduced for some events at Paris 2024, including the 110m hurdles, meaning Crittenden will have another crack at qualifying for the semi-finals on Tuesday.

Athletes get a crack at the repechage if they finish outside the top three of the heats, are not one of the next three fastest to not automatically qualify and as long as they start their heat, finish and are not disqualified.

So Crittenden taking part in the heat and casually avoiding injury does make sense.

‘It was a weird thing, I had an easy pre-meet on Saturday, in my last rep I aggravated my adductor a little bit, got some testing from the doctors,’ he said.

‘They said it’s not an injury, just a lack of muscle activation, and I’ve been feeling some pain. I thought I’d come here, take it easy and thank god there was a repechage round, I had to come here, get through the line, I can look forward to the repechage on Tuesday, get top six and make it to the semi-final on the next day.

‘I wanted to get here and make sure it didn’t feel any worse and make it through and give it everything I’ve got on Tuesday.

‘If there wasn’t a repechage round, I probably would’ve just balls to the wall, run as hard as I could, crashed and burned, whatever happens.’

Another American star, Grant Holloway, set the fastest time so far in qualifying, finishing in 13.01s.

Jamaica’s Hansle Parchment is the defending champion after gold in Tokyo and, although he is into the semi-finals he only just made it, finishing fifth in his heat in 13.43s.