Grant Holloway wins the 110m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 (© Getty Images)
As Grant Holloway strode into the crucible of the National Athletics Centre here in the Hungarian capital, the last of the eight finalists in the men’s 110m hurdles to head to the start line, he passed portraits and video clips of the past greats of the event from the 40 years of the World Athletics Championships.
One of them was of Holloway himself, having hit the gold standard in Doha in 2019 and on home ground in the USA in Oregon last year.
Another was of Greg Foster, who finished on top of the world at the inaugural championships in Helsinki in 1983, and who followed up with victories in Rome in 1987 and again in Tokyo in 1991.
Allen Johnson, another starred and striped great of the high hurdles, won four golds but in two bunches, punctuated by Colin Jackson’s success in Seville in 1999.
Only Foster had won three in a row. Until now, that is.
In the year that the original hat-trick hero of the event sadly passed away, in February at the age of 64, it seemed entirely fitting that a compatriot should follow in his hallowed footsteps.
As Holloway duly did. Only third on the world list for the year heading into the championships – behind Jamaica’s Rasheed Broadbell, who crashed out in the first round heats the previous day, and his own rapidly-emerging teammate Cordell Tinch, who failed to make it beyond the semi-finals – the world indoor record-holder proceeded to make his golden pedigree tell.
The din from the Hungarian crowd had hardly subsided in the aftermath of Daniel Stahl’s dramatic last-gasp winning discus throw when Hollway and his rivals got down to their own gold medal business.
Holloway was the first to rise, lingering for a mere 0.135 on his blocks. He snapped over the first barrier in his smooth, fluent style – already pulling clear – and maintained his power and his speed all the way to the final flight. By which time, his third gold was already as good as in the bag.
It was Hollway all the way.
Despite slowing on the run-in to the line – and Hansle Parchment, the Jamaican who beat him to the Olympic title in Tokyo two years ago, closing the gap – the man from Chesapeake, Virginia, still finished 0.11 clear.
He crossed the line in 12.96, 0.05 shy of the then world record of 12.91 Jackson set in Stuttgart in 1993 that lingers as the championship record, but a season’s best for Holloway.
The 25-year-old beat his chest in celebration and held up three digits on each hand – just in case anyone might not be aware that he had become a thumping three-peater.
Parchment took silver in 13.07, a season’s best, and belated consolation for having been obliged to withdraw from last year’s final after suffering a hamstring strain in warm up.
Bronze went to Holloway’s US teammate Daniel Roberts in 13.09 – delayed compensation for him too from the heartache of Oregon, where he crashed out in the first round, fresh from beating Holloway to the US title.
There have been four US 1-2 finishes (and one for Great Britain) but never a full podium sweep. With Pan American Games silver medallist Freddie Crittenden close behind Roberts in 13.11, there were three US athletes in the top four – followed home by Japan’s one-time Asian triple jump medallist Shunsuke Izumiya (fifth in 13.19), world U20 champion Sasha Zhoya from France (sixth in 13.26), Switzerland’s Jason Joseph (seventh in 13.28) and Wilhem Belocian, the second Frenchman (eighth in 13.32).
The night, however, belonged to the hat-trick hero from the US of A.
“Three in a row!” Holloway exclaimed. “The main thing was really just to come through here and defend my title. I've been really consistent this year and the aim here was just to continue that through the rounds.
“I felt no pressure at all, just wanted to run cleanly and stay calm at the finish line. I got a little sloppy at the end but that's just tiredness like everybody has in the hurdles.
“Overall, it was good though. Sub-13 in the final – I've got to be happy with that. My consistency showed, I think, and I managed to put everyone else into office mode, to put them on defence.
“I knew they were going to close really quickly, so my main goal was to keep smooth to the line. Now I need to get ready for the rest of the season. I just want to enjoy this while I can and keep going.”
There was a notable casualty in the semi-finals, an hour and a half earlier, Tinch failing to make the qualifying cut.
Having started the year as a horizontal jumper with the Kansas Jayhawks college track and field team, he found his third-string event – in which he entered the season with a 13.63 PB – to be his best, breaking Holloway’s NCAA record with 12.96 at the Arkansas Grand Prix in June.
Running with Holloway in the second of the semis, he could only finish third in 13.31, losing out on a non-automatic qualifying place when Belocian (13.23) and Joseph (13.25) ran quicker in the last race.
“I am not too proud of this race,” Tinch lamented, “but to be here at all after only returning to the track seven months ago, that feels amazing. I came to get experience and I cannot say I am disappointed.
“Seven months ago was my last day at work selling cell phones, so competing against the best hurdlers in the world feels special. I would have not changed this for anything.”
Like Foster, the multi-gifted Tinch was born and spent his early years in Chicago. On the evidence of his breakthrough season – in which he has still been long jumping and high jumping – his time among the high hurdling elite will doubtless come.
Simon Turnbull for World Athletics
| MEN'S 110m HURDLES MEDALLISTS | ||
| 🥇 | Grant Holloway 🇺🇸 USA | 12.96 SB |
| 🥈 | Hansle Parchment 🇯🇲 JAM | 13.07 |
| 🥉 | Daniel Roberts 🇺🇸 USA | 13.09 |
| Full results | ||
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