Dos Santos and Russell set world records at Zurich Diamond League

Alison dos Santos broke the men’s 400m hurdles world record with 45.80 at the Weltklasse meeting in Zurich. Less than 40 minutes later, Masai Russell set a new women’s 100m hurdles mark in 12.09.

Dos Santos took control of the race against Karsten Warholm by the halfway point and extended his advantage over the closing hurdles. His time was 0.14 seconds faster than Warholm’s previous record, set at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Warholm finished second in 46.69, one of the quickest times in the event’s history.

The performance capped a strong season for the Brazilian, who won the world title in 2022 and had shown consistent speed and strength before arriving in Zurich. The result also came at the final regular-season Wanda Diamond League meeting, with the series final in Brussels scheduled for the following week.

Russell’s record came after two near misses earlier in the year. The Olympic champion produced a clean race over the barriers to lower the previous world best by 0.03 seconds. Tobi Amusan, who held the record before the race, took second in a season’s best 12.23, while Nadine Visser was third in 12.34, also a season’s best.

Several other performances pushed the meeting towards record territory. Audrey Werro won the women’s 800m in 1:53.70, improving her own Diamond League, world-leading and meeting marks by 0.10. Femke Broeders-Bol was second in 1:54.71, a Dutch record, and Georgia Hunter Bell finished third in 1:55.03.

Mondo Duplantis won the pole vault after clearing 6.25m, an outdoor world lead, while Emmanouil Karalis set a Greek record of 6.20m. Anna Cockrell also established a world-leading meeting record of 52.13 in the women’s 400m hurdles, and Parker Wolfe won the men’s 3000m in 7:27.43, breaking a meeting record that had stood since 1986.