The Age of the Super Hurdler, Part I
by Steve McGill
Last year’s Olympic Games, and now the recently completed 2022 World Championships, seem to indicate that we are in the midst of a golden age when it comes to the hurdles, particularly in the men’s 400h, the women’s 400h, and the women’s 100h. The men’s 110h is still in a very healthy state, but in the other three events we are seeing revolutions taking place, as previous gold-standard times have suddenly become relatively pedestrian, forcing us to evaluate history’s greatest, mucking up how we should now look back upon the greats of earlier eras. On the women’s side, the world record was broken in both events. Tobi Amusan of Nigeria dropped a 12.10 in the semifinals of the 100m hurdles, then followed it up with a wind-aided 12.12 in the final. In the 400m hurdles, Sydney McLaughlin became the first woman ever to run under 51.00, and she did it in a big way, destroying her own world record with a time of 50.68. On the men’s side, Alison Dos Santos of Brazil was the star who shone the brightest. Though he didn’t break the world record set by Karsten Warholm last year, his 46.29 was still extremely impressive, as he beat the only two men who have ever run faster — Warholm and Rai Benjamin.
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Let’s start by talking about McLaughlin. This young woman has made enormous progress in the event over the past two years, and she was already a top 2 hurdler in the world before that. What she is doing now is like nothing that has ever been seen before in the event, perhaps even in the sport. And she’s far from done. Even Dalilah Muhammad, her rival and the only woman who has beaten her over the past three years, said in a post-race interview that Sydney will eventually run under 50.00. I agree. Sydney still hasn’t reached her prime yet. And she’s not only phenomenally gifted athletically, but she is also extremely mature for her age. She stays grounded off the track and she stays focused on the track. Even my oldest brother Greg, who doesn’t follow track, noticed that her demeanor was different from all the other athletes during pre-race introductions before the final. While everyone else waved to the audience and smiled, Sydney kept looking straight ahead. “She was locked in,” my brother said. Even after the race, she just sat on the track by herself for a while, her arms folded over her knees, just soaking in the moment. No victory lap, no celebratory gestures. That maturity and focus and high-level professionalism is why she won’t fall off.
Two years ago, McLaughlin and Muhammad were rivals on a Duke vs. UNC level, on an Alabama vs. Georgia level. Muhammad would win one race, McLaughlin would win the next. Muhammad would break the world record, then McLaughlin would break the world record. And Femke Bol of the Netherlands has been the third big rival in the mix. The only hurdlers Bol has lost to over the last two years are Muhammad and McLaughlin, and her times have been phenomenal as well. Even now, there’s no reason not to believe that Bol will continue to battle the two Americans, and that she and McLaughlin will continue their rivalry after the older Muhammad eventually retires. But in that World Championship final, something happened that caused a gasp — the same kind of gasp I remember when Ben Johnson was blowing away Carl Lewis in the 1988 Olympic final. Sydney simply dominated the race from the start, and even though Bol and Muhammad ran very strong races in finishing second and third, McLaughlin made them look like they didn’t belong in the same race as her.
The fact that McLaughlin is 14-stepping through hurdle five cannot be underestimated in evaluating her dominance. No other woman is 14-stepping at all, and no other female hurdler ever has. Her ability to alternate lead legs so seamlessly is huge. Because she has no weaknesses (she’s a strong 400 runner as proven by her relay split, and she has excellent hurdling technique), anyone who wants to beat her is going to have to be able to 14-step at least part of the backstretch just to have a chance. I don’t know if that’s going to happen. She might very well end up being the Edwin Moses of this generation — so far ahead of her time that she’s unbeatable. There are already people talking about she needs to branch out and do other events; that kind of talk annoys the hell out of me, as if the hurdles are some JV event and that dominance isn’t legit unless it occurs in an open sprint event. That kind of talk annoys me the same as football players talking about being able to beat track guys in a 40 yard dash. Who the hell cares. But I do agree that Sydney is talented enough that, if she decided to train for other events, she could be among the best in the world in the open 400, the open 200, the 100m hurdles, and maybe even the 800. To me, to see her go for a double in both hurdle events would be very cool.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, things are getting ridiculous. In a good way, I mean. It took a 12.50 just to make it to the final. Olympic bronze medalist Megan Tapper of Jamaica ran 12.52 in her semifinal heat and didn’t even qualify for the final. Just a year ago, 12.52 was good for a silver medal for Keni Harrison at the Olympic Games, and Tapper earned the bronze in 12.55. But the story here is Amusan, whose 12.12 in the semifinal broke Harrison’s world record of 12.20. Harrison, in the same semifinal, ran 12.27 — her first race under 12.30 since 2016. Amusan has been quite good over the past couple years, but at this meet she broke through in a big way, setting a personal best in every round. The 12.06 in the final was wind-aided, which means it doesn’t count for a record, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive. A 2.5 tailwind isn’t very far above the legal limit. With a legal wind she probably still would’ve been as fast as she was in the semi.
Brittany Anderson of Jamaica is another hurdler who had a big breakthrough in this meet, as her 12.23 in the final earned her a silver medal over Olympic gold medalist Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who finished third in the same time. Anderson’s 12.31 in the semis broke the Jamaican national record. My girl, Harrison, unfortunately, didn’t finish the race in the final after hitting a hurdle while trying to come back from behind. She was having a very good meet up to that point, and she will be back. Amusan’s performance has me wondering if the optimal ratio is between open 100m times and 100m hurdle times. I used to think that it was 1.2 seconds (an 11.00 pb would lead to a 12.20 pb), but now I’m thinking it might be closer to 1.0 or even slightly under 1.0. Women today don’t hurdle like women back in the day. Sally Pearson was the first hurdler I remember who hurdled differently than everyone else. When I coached Harrison in high school, Pearson served as the model that we followed. Now it seems like there are dozens of hurdlers who are similarly efficient. Just looking at the World Championship race, there is not one woman in that race who I wouldn’t consider a good model for efficient hurdling technique. Cindy Sember, who finished fifth, and Danielle Williams, who finished sixth, both have beautiful form. Moving forward, women will need to run at least sub-12.60 to even be in the conversation of making a major meet final.
For more on the men’s races, check out the next article, “The Age of the Super Hurdler, Part II)
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