Jackson leads hurdles revival.

Byline: PREFONTAINE CLASSIC By Bob Rodman The Register-Guard

Bershawn Jackson readily admits he is not the best 400-meter hurdler. Not yet.

Never mind that No. 1 ranking by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), he said.

"I am not the best," Jackson said, "but I aim to be."

Not since the decade that Edwin Moses dominated the event - and raised it to the proverbial next level - has a man taken his race and the track world by storm.

"I try to imagine how Moses did it," said Jackson, scheduled to defend his Prefontaine Classic 400 hurdles record of 47.91 seconds during Sunday's IAAF Grand Prix meet at Hayward Field. "I'd like to be the greatest, that when people talk about the 400 hurdles, they talk about Bershawn Jackson."

The 5-foot-7, 158-pound Jackson, 23, has a few more barriers to clear before equaling or surpassing Moses - the man who was victorious in 107 consecutive race finals and collected two Olympic gold medals.

Moses was dominating his event when Jackson was born in 1983.

"Edwin Moses brought (the 400 hurdles) to a level of recognition it had not had before or since," Pre Classic meet director Tom Jordan said. "The residual recognition that the 400 hurdles has as a major race is because of what Moses accomplished during his career."

Felix Sanchez, a United States-born athlete who won the Domincan Republic's first Olympic gold medal in 2004 at Athens, Greece, has been the dominant force in the event for the past few years.

"But now Sanchez is dealing with injury problems," Jordan said. "Bershawn is young and he certainly has the competitive attitude. He won at the world championships (in 2005 at Helsinki, Finland) in a downpour."

Despite the heavy rain, Jackson banked on his finishing speed and ran 47.30, his personal record, to become the first American to win the event at an outdoor world championships since Derrick Adkins secured the gold at Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1995.

Last season was a turnaround one for Jackson, who failed to make the U.S. Olympic team in 2004.

"It was a big disappointment," he said. "I had my heart set on making the team. It was a day I will never forget, and will never let happen again. It has been a big motivation for me."

Real big.

Jackson had 12 worldwide wins in 2005. Those victories included the world indoor and outdoor championships. Since 2002, he has improved his personal best by 2 seconds.

"Coming off that 2004 season, it was great," he said. "This year, I want to do even better."

Jackson is off to a great start in 2006. At a Grand Prix meet in Osaka, Japan, earlier this month, he won the 400 hurdles in world-best time of 47.60. The Raleigh, N.C., resident followed that run with a win at Doha, Qatar.

"It looks pretty good right now," he said. "I think a sub-47 is coming. It's pretty scary. I train very hard and I am very dedicated. But you just have to let it happen. They say all the hard work pays off."

Jackson said he has a "30-something win streak" going.

`I want to stay on top," he said. `Somebody once told me that it's easy to get to the top but hard to stay there."

The Miami native needed a third race against Sanchez before good things began to happen.

"In 2003, he embarrassed me," Jackson said. "He embarrassed me again a year later. But in 2005, we raced in Madrid and I beat him."

In the 2004 race at the Prefontaine, Jackson's first Pre meet appearance, Sanchez prevailed. A year later, without Sanchez in the field, Jackson flew to victory.

"I got beat badly that first year at Pre," said Jackson, a year away from graduating from St. Augustine College with an accounting degree, "but last year I set a new Pre record. It's a great atmosphere. I look forward to going back, repeating the win and hopefully breaking another record."

Jackson ran his first 400 hurdles as an 18-year-old at a Junior Olympics meet. He has had no shortage of inspiration in his track career.

His late uncle, Richard Jackson, "was one of my biggest motivators. My fiancee, Shannon Broxton, and my daughter, Shawnte, they mean a lot to me.

"I have a family waiting at home for me. Being No. 1, knowing they are there, those things help me when I sometimes don't feel like running, jogging in the hot sun and working the long hours.

"But my dream is to be No. 1 and to be an Olympic champion."

Jackson is halfway home.

He also is moving closer to Moses' PR (and former world record) of 47.02, run on Aug. 31, 1983, 3 1/2 months after Jackson was born. Moses' mark stood until 1992, when Kevin Young established the current world record of 46.78.

The event, Jackson said, and the athletes running in it are getting faster.

"In 2002 and 2003, only one guy ran 47 seconds," he said. "Two guys ran 47 in 2004. And in 2005, five ran 47. Already in the first week of May of this year, three guys have run under 48 seconds.

`The 400 hurdles is going to be a marquee event again."

CAPTION(S):

Bershawn Jackson, the world's top-ranked 400-meter hurdler, will appear in Sunday's Prefontaine Classic to defend his meet record of 47.91 seconds.