Dos Santos and Russell Break World Records in Zurich

Alison dos Santos and Masai Russell broke world records during a landmark Zurich Diamond League meeting, while Audrey Werro produced the third-fastest women’s 800m in history. BBC Sport reported that the two records fell within 75 minutes in front of a capacity crowd of 25,000 on Thursday.

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Dos Santos lowered the men’s 400m hurdles record to 45.80 seconds. The 26-year-old Brazilian improved on Karsten Warholm’s 45.94 mark from 2021, with Warholm finishing a distant second in Zurich. Dos Santos had entered the meeting unbeaten in the event this season, but his previous personal best was 46.29, set four years earlier.

Russell then clocked 12.09 seconds in the women’s 100m hurdles, taking three hundredths off Tobi Amusan’s world record of 12.12. The 26-year-old American Olympic champion had finished within a tenth of Amusan’s mark five times over the previous two seasons. Amusan was in the race and finished second as her record was surpassed.

Werro came within 0.42 seconds of the long-standing women’s 800m world record. The 22-year-old Swiss athlete won in 1:53.70, improving her personal best by a tenth and moving behind only Jarmila Kratochvilova and Nadezhda Olizarenko on the all-time list. Kratochvilova’s 1:53.28 record has stood for 43 years. Werro told BBC Sport she was proud of the consistency shown by her sub-1:54 performances.

Femke Broeders-Bol took second in the 800m with a Dutch record of 1:54.71, continuing her first season at the distance after switching from the 400m hurdles. Commonwealth champion Georgia Hunter-Bell placed third in 1:55.03. Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson had withdrawn from the Zurich meeting but, like Werro and Broeders-Bol, has qualified for the Diamond League final in Brussels on September 4-5.

Elsewhere, Olympic champion Julien Alfred handed Melissa Jefferson-Wooden her first 100m defeat in two years, winning a photo finish in 10.70. Emmanuel Wanyonyi won the men’s 800m in 1:41.76, leaving David Rudisha’s 1:40.91 world record intact. Cole Hocker won the men’s 1500m, with Jakob Ingebrigtsen finishing fifth, while pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis missed three attempts at 6.32 metres.