Paris Olympics preview: 100m hurdles and 110m hurdles

Women's 100m hurdles

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• Masai Russell and Ackera Nugent top world list
• Covid checks medal prospects of home hope Cyrena Samba-Mayela
• World record-holders Devynne Charlton and Tobi Amusan also in the frame

Less than a month out from the Paris 2024 Olympics, two 100m hurdlers produced inspired performances in their national trials which have raised realistic hopes of glory in the French capital. 

The event now looks like being one of the most open and intriguing in the track and field programme at the Stade de France.

At the US trials in Eugene, Masai Russell won in a championship record of 12.25, which put her top of this year’s world list and moved her to equal fourth on the world all-time list.

“It was just confirmation that I’m exactly where I need to be,” said the 24-year-old from Maryland. “I’m an Olympic Trials champion and I’m ready to be an Olympic champion next.”

She will be accompanied by the 2023 US indoor champion Alaysha Johnson, who was second in a PB of 12.31, and 2024 NCAA champion Grace Stark, who clocked the same time, securing third place in a final where 2019 world champion Nia Ali was fourth and former world record-holder Keni Harrison was sixth.

Moments earlier on the same day, the 100m hurdles at the Jamaican trials in Kingston had been won by US-based Ackera Nugent, the 2021 world U20 champion and 2023 NCAA gold medallist, who clocked a national record of 12.28.

Second place in 12.53 went to Danielle Williams, who regained the world title in Budapest eight years after first winning it in Beijing and is now set for her first Olympic appearance.

Until this double flourish the world list had been topped by France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela thanks to her impressive victory at last month’s European Championships in Rome in a championship and national record of 12.31. That performance came three months after she won world indoor silver as she defended her 60m hurdles title in Glasgow, and it raised home expectations for Paris 2024. 

The 23-year-old from Champigny-sur-Marne is certainly due a turn of fortune at the Olympics, having had to scratch from the heats at the Tokyo Games after she injured a hamstring in warm-up. But an untimely bout of Covid shortly after her victory in Rome has undermined her preparations, and in her ‘comeback’ meeting at a rainswept Lucerne on 16 July her Olympic prospects remained in doubt as she ran 12.66 to reach a final where she finished third in 12.85.

Now the French athlete – who moved to Florida last year to train with Irish coach John Coghlan alongside Puerto Rico’s Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn – can only hope for her health and form to return to its earlier level.

Camacho-Quinn, who took silver behind Williams at last year’s World Championships, has shown huge consistency throughout the season, winning the first two Diamond League meetings in China and claiming victory in Hengelo this month in a season’s best of 12.39 that places her joint 10th on the world list.

Meanwhile, the two women’s sprint hurdles world record-holders are also targeting podium places in Paris.

Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, who set a world 100m hurdles record of 12.12 in the semifinals of the 2022 World Championships before going on to take gold, currently stands joint 12th in the world list with 12.40, set in Kingston in May.

Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas missed a medal at last year’s World Championships in Budapest by one place, but her achievement in winning the 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow in a world record of 7.65 has raised hopes that she could transfer and extend that speed in the longer event to good effect in Paris.

Her season’s best of 12.49, set at the opening Diamond League meeting of the season in Xiamen in April, leaves her currently placed 12th in this season’s world list. She looks very capable of surpassing her PB of 12.44, set in the heats in Budapest.

There are other strong European challengers in the mix in the form of Nadine Visser of the Netherlands, currently joint sixth in the world list with her clocking of 12.36 at La Chaux-de-Fonds on 14 July, and Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska, European champion in 2022 and bronze medallist last month, who followed her home in 12.37.

Look out too for 22-year-old Ditaji Kambundji, who set a Swiss record of 12.40 in winning European silver last month behind Samba-Mayela, and Cindy Sember, who earned a third Olympic appearance by winning a fifth British title.

 

Men's 110m hurdles

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• Three-time world champion Grant Holloway seeking gold to go with Tokyo silver
• US trials medallists in top three places on world list
• Rasheed Broadbell and defending champion Hansle Parchment lead Jamaican challenge

Serial victories have become the trademark of United States hurdler Grant Holloway, who at 26 has been unbeaten in the 60m hurdles since he was 16 and has collected the last three world 110m hurdles titles and the last two world indoor 60m hurdles titles. But the biggest honour is still missing from his collection – and he is determined to correct that in Paris.

This genial gent from Chesapeake, Virginia, dropped off his habitual gold standard at the Tokyo Olympics, where he took silver behind Jamaica’s then 31-year-old Hansle Parchment.

Holloway won his second world gold a year later in a final in Oregon in which Parchment was unable to start, and the US athlete retained his title in Budapest last year, this time with Parchment taking silver ahead of two other US athletes, Daniel Roberts and Freddie Crittenden.

But he made his feelings clear after producing the second-fastest time of his career, 12.86, to win the US trials last month ahead of Crittenden, who clocked a PB of 12.93, and Roberts, who also produced a PB of 12.96 – which leaves them occupying the top three places in this year’s world list.

“You’re training for that moment, and that moment only comes every four years,” Holloway said. “If you’re not training to be Olympic gold medallist, then what the hell are you doing? That’s my mentality.”

Roberts had begun the season with a flourish, winning the two opening Diamond League meetings in China in 13.11 and 13.12. Holloway stepped in to win the next 110m hurdles at the Diamond League, clocking 13.03 in Eugene, and underlined his form after the trials by securing victory at the Monaco Diamond League on 12 July, clocking 13.01.

Parchment, meanwhile, just managed to qualify for Paris as he clocked 13.19 at the Jamaican trials to earn third place – the same position he claimed to qualify for Tokyo.

Victory went to Commonwealth champion Rasheed Broadbell in 13.18, just ahead of Orlando Bennett, credited with the same time.

Broadbell will have a point to prove after his unhappy experience at last year’s World Championships. Having arrived as the man at the top of the world list with a time of 12.94, he was disqualified in his heat.

Meanwhile, the European challenge to the US triumvirate is likely to involve France’s 22-year-old Sasha Zhoya, the 2021 world U20 champion who pushed his talent to the limits at the French trials when his blocks slipped in the heats and he was on the brink of pulling up, assuming the race would be re-started. When it became horribly clear that was not the case, he set off like a man possessed to claim one of the four qualifying places and just made it, going on to win the final in 13.32.

Italy will have high hopes for Lorenzo Simonelli, who delighted the home crowd in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico with his European title win in 13.18, while Spain will look to Enrique Llopis, whose clocking of 13.09 in June  moved him to joint eighth in this season’s world list.

Poland’s Jakub Szymanski equalled the national record of 13.25 in his national trials, while European bronze medallist Jason Joseph won the Swiss trials in 13.26.

Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics