Dos Santos: 'We're far from our limit'

For an athlete who has swept all before him this season – with seven Diamond League wins from seven races, a 400m hurdles world record and a commanding win at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship – it seems greedy to ask Alison dos Santos if he can go even quicker.

But ever since he repositioned the limits of his event, clocking a world record of 45.80 in Zurich last month, it's been a valid question. How close is that to the limit in the 400m hurdles?

"We're far from our limit," said Dos Santos. "The time that I run and say, 'This is my limit,' you're not going to see me next season. I'm excited to be able to run 45.8 now, but I'm looking forward to running 45.6, 45.4. I can't give you a number, but I know it can be faster."

It has been a year in which the 26-year-old has surpassed by some distance his previous best season, 2022, when he won the world title in Oregon in 46.29.

His stride pattern hasn't changed in recent years. Dos Santos still runs with 13 strides between the first two hurdles, then switches to 12 until hurdle six before returning to 13 for the remainder. But what has changed? His top-end speed and his physical maturity.

"We were just able to get better, get faster, to be perfect in our stride pattern," he said. "I got faster, I got stronger, I've been getting more mature too. The body needs to evolve.

"In 2021 I was 21 years old, I was just a kid, now you can see the body change. I'm way stronger and I'm able to work on the speed. Before I could not do any speed work. So we're just going to get better and better and better."

That's a scary thought for Dos Santos's rivals, given the level he reached in 2026.

Dos Santos lowered his 400m PB to 44.38 in April and then took four Diamond League victories in four weeks, winning in Shaoxing, Xiamen, Stockholm and Oslo, beating Karsten Warholm in three of those.

He returned to Brazil in July, winning national titles over 400m (44.60) and 400m hurdles (46.48) – his first races on home turf since 2019.

"It was amazing," he said. "The energy, the crowd, the people were so loud, taking pictures and enjoying."

He will return home again later this year as the undisputed world number one.

"Now that I'm going back there as a world record holder, as Ultimate champion, I just want to go and enjoy," he said.

Dos Santos has been coached for the past nine years by Felipe de Siqueira, who he convinced to come and watch him in Zurich last month when Warholm's world record of 45.94 – which had stood for five years – fell in spectacular fashion.

The pair are now based in Clermont, Florida, but they began working together in Brazil when Dos Santos left Sao Joaquim da Barra to move to Sao Paulo and train at the Pinheiros club.

His first sporting love was judo, which he practised from the age of six to 14. “I loved that, I really loved that,” said Dos Santos.

But his family didn’t have much money and it became harder and harder to justify a sport where each training session cost money and offered little potential for return.

“In track and field, we saw an opportunity to make money and go to nationals and win a medal, and we needed that," he said in 2022. "I started because of this but after a couple of months I loved it. I made new friends around the city, the states, the country, and now I do it because I love the sport.”

And the sport loves him right back.

Few athletes are as effervescent as Dos Santos before or after races, and few are as warmly received by the fans.

The 400m hurdles has been impossible to look away from in recent years, and Dos Santos believes we shouldn't take for granted the collective greatness being exhibited.

"When it's the three of us running, it's always amazing," he said. "It was me, Karsten and Rai fighting to the last hurdle and this is something that needs to be appreciated more, in my opinion.

"Running 45 is amazing, but because you're running these crazy times, 46-high, 47-low is nothing for you guys (in the media). Just understand that 47-low is insane, 46-something is a crazy time. So having the three of us running (so fast) is amazing."

By one measure of sustained performance, Dos Santos has now edged ahead of both rivals: his 10 fastest career performances average 46.44, compared with 46.49 for both Benjamin and Warholm.

His 45.80 world record in Zurich took many by surprise, but not his coach, who was moved to tears as he and Dos Santos embraced after the race.

"Only we know everything we’ve been through to get here," wrote De Siqueira on Instagram. "Every stone laid to build our fortress. Every sacrifice, every lesson learned. Day and night spent studying, improving, and paying attention to every single detail. It’s not magic. It’s hard work, dedication, and commitment."

Did Dos Santos think all of this was possible heading into 2026?

"I knew I was able to break the world record," he said. "I knew I was able to run 45 and deliver. But as Masai (Russell) was saying the whole season, when you do a sprint or hurdles, you can't plan the world record. You need to be able to have the perfect time, good track, perfect shape."

After Zurich, it was onwards to Brussels where Dos Santos powered to victory at the Diamond League final in 46.70. Then to Budapest and that all-star clash with Warholm and Benjamin for the Ultimate trophy.

Dos Santos made a slightly more conservative start than he did in Zurich, passing 200m in 21.95, one hundredth of a second ahead of Benjamin, but at 300m, reached in 33.46, he was a hundredth of a second behind the Olympic champion.

But he still had plenty left. The Brazilian pulled clear up the home straight to win in 45.98 – the third-fastest performance in history.

"The season has been great, and there is no better way to finish," he said. "It was hard. It's really tough. It's 45, it's not something you're going to run every single day. I'm just really happy to be able to deliver again, run fast and enjoy the energy of the crowd."

"This is like the cherry on top of the cake.

"I've been running fast the whole season, so let's do it one more time (and) finish pretty."

What will he do with the $150,000 top prize?

"I'm getting older, I'm no longer thinking about getting that new car," he smiled. "I'm just going to take the money, put it in my house, do some renovation, invest."

Budapest turned out not to be quite the end of his racing year. Dos Santos has since stepped down to the flat 400m at the South American Games in Santa Fe, where he won his opening-round race in a Games record of 44.99. He contests the final later on Wednesday.

Speaking after his Ultimate victory, Dos Santos wasn't keen to look ahead to 2027, preferring to stay in the moment and enjoy all he has achieved in 2026.

"The main thing is my vacation now," he said. "You need to be in the present. If I finish my last race and think about next year, (then) when am I going to enjoy this and digest everything I've done?

"It was a perfect season. I'm in a sweet spot now that I love this sport, I have great energy. Everybody on my team is doing an amazing job.

"The job is done on the track, now it's to go out there and celebrate. Once I leave here, I'm no longer an athlete. I'll be having fun, eating some junk food and just being happy."

After a masterpiece of a season, few deserve that more.

Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics