As a boy, Colin Jackson had an all-round talent for sport, playing football and cricket for the county and rugby and basketball for his school, Llanedeyrn High, but it was athletics that he enjoyed the most.
The 110m hurdles was Jackson's preferred event, and he excelled in this field. He won his first major medal in 1986, silver for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. He followed that with a World Championship bronze in 1987 and another silver at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 before he was crowned Commonwealth and European champion in 1990.
In 1993, Jackson set a world record time of 12.91 seconds for the 110m hurdles at the World Championships in Stuttgart. Additionally, he broke a world record for his time of 7.30 seconds for the indoor 60m hurdles in 1994. Also in this year, the English reggae band Aswad propelled Jackson to even higher fame when his name was mentioned in their hit song Shine.
Jackson has been praised by his fellow athletes for his focus, his dedication and being one of the nicest guys in sport. After 13 years of holding the world record for 110m hurdles, Chinese athlete Liu Xiang broke it in July 2006. Jackson was full of praise for the record breaker - "People have been asking me for 13 years how long I thought my record would last," he said.
Jackson has now retired following the World Indoor championships in Birmingham in March 2003 and in this year, was awarded the CBE, thirteen years after receiving an MBE. He currently provides coaching, and presents sports related programs, usually on the BBC. He was also one of the members of the successful London 2012 Olympic bid team.
