Athletics: Man obsessed with time sees it run out on a golden career

The Colin Jackson Interview: The prince of the high hurdles will end his reign next weekend. Simon Turnbull talks to him about lingering goals and life beyond the track

Purely by chance, Colin Jackson had parked himself directly above the 60m hurdles finish line, up in the gods in the National Indoor Arena. He did sit down with his back to it, but was naturally invited to spin 180 degrees and look down upon what, for the Peter Pan of the track-and-field world, will very soon be the final finish line. "Yeah, that's the one all right," he said, breaking into a giggle.

It has been a long time coming. It was in 1985 that Jackson first made his mark in the international arena, if not quite his name. In reviewing the unprecedented British medal success that year at the European junior championships in Cottbus, East Germany, the British Athletics Annual made passing reference to the silver won in the 110m hurdles by a "Colin Walker".

The British golden boys of '85 have long since been and gone from the track-and-field scene: Elliot Bunney, Ade Mafe, Roger Black, Jon Ridgeon, Paul Taylor, John Hill. Ridgeon, who beat Jackson to the high- hurdles title, has had several careers beyond his final finish line: as a radio presenter, a television front-man, a press officer and now as a director of Fast Track, the company who promote the major athletics meetings in Britain.

Nigel Walker, another of Jackson's early rivals, has also moved on several times over. He has been an international rugby union player, a radio presenter, a television commentator, a rugby coach and is now head of sport at BBC Wales.

"It is very, very weird, I must admit," Jackson mused. "I was only thinking about it yesterday, actually. I was looking at some of these names and thinking what had happened to them. So many of them have come and gone, and now, all of a sudden, it's time for me to go."

At the age of 36, after 18 years in the international fast lane, Jackson will be gone after the world indoor championships, which open at the National Indoor Arena in the heart of Birmingham on Friday morning and run through to Sunday afternoon, when the men's 60m hurdles final just happens to be the last individual event on the programme. "It's funny," he said. "Because I've been focusing on the championships, I'm not really seeing it as my last race.

"I'm in great shape at the moment, so I'm kind of excited about the champion-ships. I'm not really excited about finishing yet. I'm just looking forward to winning my next medal. That kind of adds another little target to try to achieve, like the amount of medals I've won and getting 70 vests and things. If I can keep pushing up that boundary it would be great."

It has been ever thus for the elegantly athletic Cardiffian. In clearing countless 3ft 6in barriers, and clattering the odd one too, Jackson has pushed the boundary of his personal achievement beyond that of any other competitor in British athletics history. In Birmingham he will be challenging for a 26th international championship medal and collecting a 71st international vest, fittingly enough as captain of the Great Britain team. Whether or not he climbs the medal rostrum this time, he will leave as holder of the outdoor world record for the 110m hurdles, and in all probability of the indoor record for the 60m hurdles too.

As Jackson prepared to get to his marks at the Norwich Union Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham a fortnight ago, Ridgeon, as the infield master of ceremonies, presented a video clip on the arena scoreboard of the Welshman stopping the trackside clock at 12.91sec on the way to his first 110m hurdles world title. That performance, in Stuttgart's Neckarstadion, has stood as a world record since 20 August 1993. It is the longest any single clocking has survived as the world record in the event, although Renaldo "Skeets" Nehemiah was world record holder for 10 years and four months with three separate performances.

"Yeah, I'm kind of pleased about that," Jackson said. "Also, if you look at it, there's only 0.02sec between the time Renaldo set in 1981 and the time I set in 1993. That's something like 10cm. So it's obviously a difficult thing to hit through that ceiling, otherwise people would have done it."

It is no surprise to discover that Jackson has studied the record books himself. He is a man obsessed by time. His most beloved possessions are not his medals – an Aladdin's Cave he has passed on to his parents – but his collection of wrist-watches. It numbers in excess of 70. "Some people like cuckoo clocks," he said. "Some people like trains. I like watches. I just have a fascination with them. And all different kinds. They can be cheap or they can be extremely chic, whatever grabs me at the time."

It says much for Jackson the man that he can laugh about the one item notably absent from his glittering medal collection. Asked how he might be remembered as an athlete, he replied, giggling again, "Well, he was good, but he didn't win an Olympics, did he?" It also says a lot about his engaging equanimity that he can laugh when mention is made of the time that Tony Dees, one of his many American rivals, described him as "a bottler". BBC Wales used trailers of milk bottles balanced on hurdles in the run-up to the Olympics in Barcelona in 1992. Far from bottling it on that big occasion, Jackson was hit by injury. "Of all the Olympics, that was the biggest disappointment," he reflected, "because I was most probably in the best shape of my entire life in 1992."

It proved to be a pivotal point in Jackson's hurdling life. He emerged from his nadir as a battler rather than a bottler. In 1993 he won his first world title (he also struck gold in the outdoor and indoor global championships in 1999) and broke Roger Kingdom's world record. In 1994 he was undefeated, securing a unique double in the 60m and 60m hurdles at the European indoor championships, winning his second Commonwealth title, his second (of four) European outdoor crowns and setting a world indoor record for the 60m hurdles, 7.30sec, that is likely to outlive his outdoor record.

Today Tony Dees is a fitness coach for a baseball club in Florida (and has long been forgiven by Jackson) and BBC Wales are preparing a documentary tribute to the Principality's finest ever athlete, the peerless prince of the high hurdles. It might all have been very different, though. At 16 Jackson started working life as an appren-tice electrician, until Malcolm Arnold, the coach who guided John Akii-Bua to the Olympic 400m hurdles title in 1972, steered him towards a career in the fast lane. As well as a bright spark, he might also have become a cricketer. "Yes, I did play cricket when I was younger," Jackson recalled. "I used to open the bowling and bat at five. Then one day I had a choice: a cricket match in West Wales or an athletics meeting three minutes' walk from our house. I did the track meet and that was it."

Now, one month past his 36th birthday, Jackson is preparing to expand his horizons beyond the track arena. He is planning to produce a series of television documentaries, has penned a film script he hopes to bring to the silver screen one day, and is involved in a project offering personal lifestyle and fitness programmes. He will also be squeezing into the BBC television commentary box.

"I want to do some travelling too," he said. "I want to see the places I've been to but haven't had a chance to look at. The whole of my adult life, everything I've done, has revolved around track and field. It's kind of like finishing school or university. You just finish and move on to something new. I'm looking forward to that."

First, though, comes the final hurdle, the final finish line in Birmingham. "It would really mean a lot to me to win," Jackson mused. "I've done the world indoors five times and I've only won it once. I'd like to win a gold medal at home, in Britain. I've never won a major title in Britain."

And there are not many achievements Colin Jackson has failed to accomplish in a sprint-hurdling career that has turned into a glorious 18-year marathon.

Biography: Colin Ray Jackson MBE

Born: 18 February 1967 in Cardiff.

Event: Men's 110m hurdles.

Junior career: European silver, 1985. World gold, 1986.

World championships: Outdoor golds in 1993 and 1999; silvers in 1987 and 1997. Indoor gold 1999; silvers in 1989, 1997.

Olympics: Silver in 1988; seventh in 1992; fourth in 1996; fifth in 2000.

European Championships: Outdoor golds in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002. Indoor golds in 1989, 1994 and 2002 (also 60m gold in 1994).

Commonwealth Games: Gold medals in 1990 and 1994; silver medals in 1986 and 2002.

World records: Outdoors, 110m hurdles, 12.91sec (1993). Indoors, 60m hurdles, 7.30sec (1994).