After winning 27 consecutive high hurdles finals, Rod Milburn of Southern University and the Baton Rouge TC came unstuck at the 1972 Final Trials when, after hitting the seventh and 10th hurdles, he finished in third place. He quickly made amends by taking the Olympic title with a new world record of 13.24 (fully automatic timing), and then ran up a further streak of 31 victories until he lost to Leon Coleman over 50 m in a pro race in April 1975. Milburn won the AAU and the NCAA title twice and was the Pan American Games champion in 1971. At the 1971 Pan Am Games he was also on the 4×100 metres relay team (with the non-Olympians Willie Deckard, Marshall Dill, and Ronald Draper) which won bronze. Indoors, Milburn won the AAU twice and set numerous records at varying distances. In winning the 1971 outdoor AAU he became the first man to officially run 13 seconds flat for the 120y hurdles. Milburn died after being overcome by sodium chlorate fumes while working at a paper plant.
Personal Best: 110H – 13.24 (1972).
United States