Olympic Games Preview Capsules
Men's Hurdles
This is the fifth in a series of 13 posts in which TFI will preview all 48 events that will comprise the athletics portion of the Olympic Games in Paris. The track and field competition will run from Thursday, August 1, through Sunday, August 11. Once all of the preview capsules have been posted they will be pinned on the TFI home page for easy reference. The next post after this one? The women’s hurdles.
110-METER HIGH HURDLES
World Record: 12.80, Aries Merritt (US), 2012.
Olympic Record: 12.91, Liu Xiang (China), 2004.
World Leader: 12.86, Grant Holloway (US).
RECENT GLOBAL CHAMPIONS
2023 World Championships: Grant Holloway (US), 12.96 (wind 0.0 meters per second).
2022 World Championships: Holloway, 13.03 (1.2).
2021 Olympic Games: Hansle Parchment (Jamaica), 13.04 (-0.5).
2019 World Championships: Holloway, 13.10 (0.6).
2017 World Championships: Omar McLeod (Jamaica), 13.04 (0.0).
2016 Olympic Games: McLeod, 13.05 (0.2).
SCHEDULE
August 4: Round One, 5:50 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time.
August 6: Repechage, 4:50 a.m.
August 7: Semifinals, 1:05 p.m.
August 8: Final, 3:45 p.m.
OUTLOOK
When it comes to consistent excellence for the past five seasons, no high hurdler in the world can compare to American Grant Holloway. The man won titles in the World Athletics Championships in 2019, ’22, and ’23, and has run under 13 seconds at least once for five consecutive seasons, not counting 2020 when much of the competition schedule was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the one thing he has not achieved during that time is win an Olympic gold medal. Holloway entered the year-delayed Games in Tokyo as the favorite, but he finished second in the final when Hansle Parchment of Jamaica overtook him in the final 20 meters of the race to run 13.04 seconds to Holloway’s 13.09. While Holloway is an outgoing person who smiles frequently, that loss has stuck with him for the past four years and he is intent on making amends in Paris. Parchment, the silver medalist in last year’s World Championships, will be back to defend his Olympic title, but he currently has a season best of 13.19 that came in the final of his country’s national championships when he finished third, a hundredth of a second behind first-place Rasheed Broadbell and second-place Orlando Bennett. In contrast, Holloway won the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in 12.86, the fourth-fastest time ever, while winning the first race in history in which three hurdlers ran under 13 seconds and an impressive six clocked 13.15 or faster. Holloway’s winning time capped a scintillating trio of races in the U.S. Trials as he ran 12.92 in the heats and 12.96 in the semifinals. He was followed across the finish line in the final by second-place Freddie Crittenden in 12.93 and third-place Daniel Roberts in 12.96. Those times make Crittenden and Roberts, the fourth- and third-place finishers in last year’s World Championships, the second and third-fastest high hurdlers in the world this year. With Americans occupying nine of the top 14 positions on the yearly world performer list, one might be tempted to predict a 1-2-3 sweep by the U.S. in the Games, but Holloway would be first person to tell you that nothing is guaranteed in the high hurdles. Outside of the American trio, the three entrants with the fastest times this year are Lorenzo Ndele Simonelli of Italy, who set a national record of 13.05 in winning the European title in early June, Rachid Muratake of Japan, who has run 13.07, and Enrique Llopis of Spain, who has clocked 13.09. Aside from the aforementioned Jamaican trio, the other sub-13.20 competitors in the field are Sasha Zoya of France at 13.15 and Shunsuke Izumiya of Japan at 13.16.
400-METER INTERMEDIATE HURDLES
World Record: 45.94, Karsten Warholm (Norway), 2021.
Olympic Record: 45.94, Karsten Warholm (Norway), 2021.
World Leader: 46.46, Rai Benjamin (US).
RECENT GLOBAL CHAMPIONS
2023 World Championships: Karsten Warholm (Norway), 46.89.
2022 World Championships: Alison dos Santos (Brazil), 46.29.
2021 Olympic Games: Warholm, 45.94 WR.
2019 World Championships: Warholm, 47.42.
2017 World Championships: Warholm, 48.35.
2016 Olympic Games: Kerron Clement (US), 47.73.
SCHEDULE
August 5: Round One, 4:05 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time.
August 6: Repechage, 6:00 a.m.
August 7: Semifinals, 1:35 p.m.
August 9: Final, 3:45 p.m.
OUTLOOK
Karsten Warholm of Norway produced what many regarded as the performance of the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021 when his winning time of 45.94 seconds in the intermediate hurdles made him the first — and still the only — man in history to have run under 46 seconds in the event and crushed his previous world record of 46.70 that he had set a month earlier in the Bislett Games in Oslo. However, he is regarded as an underdog to American Rai Benjamin entering the Games in Paris. Benjamin ran 46.17, still the second-fastest time ever, in Tokyo, but that loss has stuck with him. He desperately wants to win an Olympic title and he will enter the Games on a four-race winning streak in which he has run 46.67 or faster in every contest since finishing a disappointing third in last year’s World Athletics Championships. Two of those victories have come in races in which three-time World champion Warholm placed second. The most recent clash between the two of them occurred in the Herculis EBS Diamond League meet in Fontvieille, Monaco, on July 12 when Benjamin clocked 46.67 to Warholm’s 46.73. Alison dos Santos of Brazil, the Olympic bronze medalist, 2022 World champion, and third-fastest performer in history at 46.29, finished third in 47.18 in Monaco. While Benjamin, dos Santos, and Warholm top the yearly world performer list with times of 46.46, 46.63, and 46.70, respectively, another 11 competitors have run between 47.42 and 47.99 this year. Malik James-King ran 47.42 in winning the Jamaican championships in late June, while Alessandro Siblio of Italy clocked 47.50 to finish second to Warholm in the European Athletics Championships in early June, and Roshawn Clarke of Jamaica timed 47.63 to place second behind dos Santos in a Diamond League meet in London on July 20. Among the other sub-48 entrants are Kyron McMaster of the Virgin Islands at 47.81 and Trevor Bassitt of the U.S. at 47.82. McMaster was the silver medalist in the World Championships last year and Bassitt was the bronze medalist in the 2022 global title meet. Ramus Magi of Estonia has run 47.95 this year after finishing seventh, eighth, and seventh in the three previous global championships.
Note — Competitors who do not automatically advance to the semifinals from their first-round heats in the 200, 400, 800, and 1,500 meters, as well as in the straightaway and one-lap hurdle races, will get a second chance to qualify for the semifinals by competing in a repechage race.
