\n<\/p>\n
“It was jaw-dropping,” admits his great rival, McKoy.<\/p>\n
“We just looked at each other [while waiting for the next heat] and said ‘OK, we know who’s going to win. Who’s going to get silver?'”<\/p>\n
But Jackson admits doing “no preparation at all” for the second round.<\/p>\n
“It was just the second round,” Jackson says. “They’ve all seen what I can do so I can’t be bothered. Let me do a bit of stretching and just race.”<\/p>\n
His coach Arnold warned him of the consequences.<\/p>\n
Jackson finished second in a messy race but, after hitting the fifth hurdle, ripped his oblique muscle down his left side – a crucial muscle in lifting your leg to hurdle.<\/p>\n
It proved costly and he could only finish seventh in the final.<\/p>\n
“You accept it if somebody’s better than you,” says Jackson. “But I was the best.<\/p>\n
“You cannot fathom the depth of depression you go into.<\/p>\n
“It’s everything in your life – everything. You realise you will never have this time again. You go from hero to zero in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n
“It took a whole year for that to vanish.”<\/p>\n
He faced accusations he was a ‘choker’ and there was even an advert that showed a bottle on a set of hurdles, suggesting Jackson couldn’t cope in the big moments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n