caption event birth_place weight nationality height sport birth_date image article_title name
neil hurdles gardner winning the 1996 ncaa championships - 400m sprinting -lrb- 400 meter hurdles -rrb- kingston , jamaica 155 lb kg on jamaican 5 10 running 8 december 1974 neilgardner 1996 400mh ncaa champ.jpg neil gardner
 neil gardner
neil gardner

neil anthony gardner , born 8 december 1974 in kingston , jamaica to lloyd gardner and viris page-gardner , is a former jamaican athlete who specialized in the 400 meters hurdles event .
as a junior athlete -lrb- under 20 years of age -rrb- gardner found much success at the inter-secondary school sports association national boys ' championships where he was awarded the victor ludorum -lrb- champion athlete -rrb- three years in a row , 1991 -- 1993 .
gardner also excelled in the carifta games , winning several medals between 1989 and 1993 .
in 1993 , gardner was awarded a track and field scholarship to the university of michigan in ann arbor , michigan to compete in the jumps and hurdles .
while at michigan , gardner won three big ten titles and was runner-up on six occasions .
in his junior year 1996 , gardner won the ncaa outdoor championship track and field 400 m hurdle championship title in a time of 49.27 seconds .
in 1997 , gardner went on to become the first person in the history of the ncaa to win the ncaa championship titles in both the 400 m hurdle event -lrb- outdoors -rrb- as well as the 55 m hurdle event -lrb- indoors -rrb- , which he did in a time of 7.18 seconds .
his personal best time of 48.30 in the 400 m hurdles at the olympic game in 1996 , ranked gardner among the top 10 performers of all time for the ncaa as well as the central american and caribbean region .
this time was also a varsity record for the university of michigan .
gardner is ranked 6th among jamaican 400 m hurdlers of all time .
