An iconic sporting world record has sensationally fallen after Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos set a new all-time men’s 400m hurdles mark at the Diamond League meet in Zurich on Thursday.
Dos Santos clocked a sensational 45.80 seconds to beat the previous mark of 45.94sec set by Norway’s Karsten Warholm when winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics. Warholm watched his record fall as he finished second in Zurich.
It came on a dramatic when another world record fell, Australia’s world champion high jumper Nicola Olyslagers returned to winning ways and legend Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis score another historic pole vault triumph.
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The 400m hurdles is widely considered one of the most brutal and competitive events on the track and Warholm has owned the event since first taking the record in 2021, beating a mark set by American Kevin Young more than 30 years earlier.
Warholm then improved his own world record from 46.70 to a stunning 45.94 in Tokyo in 29-2021 in what legend Michael Johnson described as “one of the most impressive performances in the history of the sport.
Asked whether he thought he might break the world record in Zurich, Dos Santos was in no doubt: “I did, I did!
“As soon as I knew I was coming here, I was excited. The weather’s good, the track’s amazing.” Dos Santos, the 2022 world champion who won world silver last year as well as two Olympic bronzes, will leave Zurich with a cheque for $80,000 for having broken the record.
Dos Santos, drawn in lane six inside Warholm, kept early track on the traditionally fast-starting Norwegian.
The pair were neck-and-neck coming into the final 150 metres, before Dos Santos put on the afterburners down the home straight, immediately dropping Warholm.
From there, it was just a race between the 26-year-old Brazilian and the line. He did not hold back, crashing through to finish in amazing style. “I hope that Brazil stopped to watch this as much as the people here in the stadium,” said Dos Santos.
“This has been an incredible night, I have no words to explain what happened other than I just broke the world record.
“I have been showing great form throughout the season — that I am fast, I am strong.” – Dos Santos said there had been fundamental changes made to his training and racing in preparation for a tilt at the world record.
“I’m starting faster, I’m finishing stronger, and that is what I have to do to be able to break a world record,” he said.
“I was looking for my coach after I crossed the finish line. I was the one running, but he is the one who made this possible — someone who believed in me when I was younger.
“He helped me to develop both as an athlete and as a person, too. He’s like an older brother, like a dad to me.”
Warholm swept in on the coattails of Dos Santos in 46.69sec, which also beat his meet record set last year, while Nigeria’s Ezekiel Nathaniel was third (47.50).
“From Silesia it did not look like it was going to come today, I would say,” Warholm said of Dos Santos’s new WR.
“But after the hurdle 4-5 he looked extremely good. He was brilliant.” Warholm was left satisfied with his own performance, saying it was “really good”.
“But on the other hand, it is like nothing to do. I just cannot go out there and run one second faster because he does it. That is not how it works,” he added.
“So I have got to get back to the drawing board and do something else. I still feel I can do something about it.
“I have been running 45.94 before. It is unbelievable. There is nothing more to say. It is a crazy event
It wasn’t the only world record on the night with American Masai Russell also lowering the 100m hurdles mark, while Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis won a historic pole vault in a barmy night of track and field in Zurich
Australia’s world champion and two-time Olympic silver medallist Olyslagers, meanwhile, also returned to winning ways in the high jump with a season’s best of 2.02m
It came after she surprisingly fell short of a podium at the Silesia Diamond League event last week.
Olyslagers beat Ukraine’s Iryna Herashchenko (2.00m) and Montenegro’s Marija Vuković (1.98m).
Russell, the Olympic champion of the US timing 12.09sec to beat the previous best of 12.12sec set by Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan at the Eugene world championships in 2022.
Both Dos Santos and Russell will leave Zurich with a cheque each for $US80,000 for having broken their respective records.
The world records were punctuated by a scintillating competition in the pole vault, eventually won by double Olympic and triple world champion Duplantis.
The US-born Swede came under real pressure from Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis, who vaulted a personal best of 6.20m.
Duplantis cleared 6.25m for victory, while both vaulters tried a possible world record 6.32m, in a truly thrilling showdown that gripped the stadium’s attention.
It was the first time in vaulting history that two athletes had gone beyond the 6.20m mark.
“It’s not every day two people go for the world record, so that was nuts,” said Karalis.
The icing on the cake came in the women’s 800m, with the star attraction Switzerland’s own Audrey Werro.
Werro also did not disappoint, registering the third fastest time ever in the two-lap race, 1:53.70, as she edged ever closer to Jarmila Kratochvilova’s Cold War world record of 1:53.28 set in Munich in 1983.
“It was crazy, I am very proud. Thank you everybody!” the 22-year-old beamed. Femke Broeders-Bol finished second as she continues to improve in her transition from the 400m hurdles in which she was twice a world champion.
“Being in a great event with a great time — amazing,” the Dutch athlete said. Kenya’s world and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi held off Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati for a nail-biting victory in the men’s 800m.
Wanyonyi has said that going for David Rudisha’s world record of 1:40.91 was like running a marathon under two hours, and it once again proved elusive as he timed a world lead of 1:41.76 for the win, Sedjati just 0.07sec adrift.
“When I see the world records being broken, I know my time will come. There is time for everything,” said Wanyonyi.
US Olympic champion Cole Hocker, the world champ over 5,000m, claimed victory in a high-quality men’s 1,500m in 3:31.71 ahead of Kenya’s Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech.
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen came in fifth as he continues his return to the track after an Achilles tendon injury that required surgery.
Olympic silver medallist Anna Cockrell bettered Broeders-Bol’s meet record set last year by 0.05sec to win the 400m hurdles in 52.13sec ahead of US teammate Dalilah Muhammad.
American Parker Wolfe smashed the meet record in the men’s non-Olympic distance of 3,000m, clocking a personal best of 7:27.43 to better Moroccan Said Aouita’s previous best set in 1986 by more than 5sec.
And there was another world lead in the men’s 200m by American Kenny Bednarek, who won in some style in 19.62sec.
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