On Thursday evening, the world record was broken by Alison Dos Santos.
The 26-year-old Brazilian outran Norway’s athletics star Karsten Warholm in the 400 m hurdles event, who had held the world record for the past five years.
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Now A. Dos Santos ran the hurdles at a record speed – 45.80 seconds.
The Brazilian athlete’s face lit up with a smile when he crossed the finish line and saw the result, which was 0.14 seconds better than K. Warholm’s achievement recorded in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
By the way, A. Dos Santos won bronze at those Games, as well as at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The 2022 world champion and last year’s world vice-champion improved his personal best by almost half a second on Thursday in Switzerland.
“This is fantastic. I can’t complain, and as I go to bed tonight, I can think that I am the fastest in history – it’s fantastic,” said A. Dos Santos.
The 30-year-old K. Warholm, who finished second, was no match for the Brazilian who is four years younger this time.
There have been defeats before. Losing the world record while still on the track was more painful.
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“I am a bit shocked that he broke the world record today. It was not on my list of guesses, but there is nothing to do but bow. It was fantastic,” K. Warholm told NRK.
In the Diamond League, the world record was soon broken in the women’s 100 m hurdles event as well.
American Masai Russell ran 12.09 and improved the four-year-old record held by Tobi Amusan by 0.03 seconds.
In this event, the former world record holder experienced the same unpleasant feeling – 29-year-old Nigerian athlete T. Amusan set the world record (12.12 seconds) at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, and on Thursday in Zurich she finished second, running 12.23 seconds.
T. Amusan congratulated her opponent, who is three years younger, for breaking her record.
This did not come out of the blue. The 26-year-old M. Russell is the 2024 Olympic champion, who last year broke the US record in this event and this year has run very close to the historic achievement several times.
