Nehemiah Beats Kingdom to Win First U.S. Race in Five Years

Renaldo Nehemiah won his first race in the United States in five years Saturday, pulling away to take the 55-meter hurdles in the Pacific Northwest Bell Indoor track and field meet.

Nehemiah, 27, the world record-holder making a comeback after four seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, was clocked in a hand-timed 6.9 seconds. The event was hand-timed due to a malfunction of the electronic timing equipment.

Nehemiah’s time was just off his world best of 6.89 seconds set seven years ago.

Roger Kingdom, the 1984 Olympic gold medalist in the 110-meter hurdles, was second in 7.1 seconds. Greg Foster and Tonie Campbell, who beat Nehemiah last weekend in Los Angeles, did not enter the meet here.

“I’m ecstatic with the win,” Nehemiah said. “I used to pray every day that I could get back in track and field before I was too old. I didn’t know how much I would miss it after I left.”