A look at the women’s 100m hurdles
I’ve always been fascinated by the women’s steeplechase, and they’ve never been better than they are now.
In 2015, Daniel Williams won the world championship with a time of 12.57. The following year, Brianna Rollins won Olympic gold with a time of 12.48. Sally Pearson won the 2017 World Championships with a time of 12.59. Times have gotten faster and faster since then.
In 2021, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won Olympic gold in 12.37 minutes, a time that wouldn’t even get you on the podium three years later in Paris, when Masai Russell won in 12.33 and the bronze medalist finished in 12.36 minutes.
The same progress can be seen at the world championships, with Pearson’s 12.59 not enough for gold in 2017. In 2019, Nia Ali became the world champion, running 12.34. 2022 can be discounted as 12.06 medalist times and 12.23 with the support of the wind. 2023 Daniel Williams won his second world title in 12.43 minutes.Winning the championship means advancing through the stages.At the 2023 world championships, Kenny Harrison ran 12.46.On the other hand , Williams displayed excellent competitive management by running 12.50 premium and 12.51 semi, which was enough to make the final where he found the time he needed to win.
It’s not just in championships, times are crazy. Take the nine Diamond League 100h races. Early season races were one in 12.45 to 12.63, but as the season progressed we saw Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in 12.35, 12.36 and 12.38, and Ackera Nugent in two. was winning times: 12.24 and 12.29, a phenomenon.
In Brussels, I took the opportunity to ask two-time world champion Daniel Williams what on Earth is going on.
“I would definitely agree that there are more fast hurdlers now than there were a few years ago. But the 100m hurdles is always more about speed than technique. Because the hurdles are always so low, it always depends.” how fast are you can run “Run” isn’t the right word, because you don’t usually run between obstacles, but who can move between them the fastest, so the faster you are on the flat, the faster you can avoid not having a technical barrier, because it’s about technical It’s not about how fast you can get back on the track and run. There are a lot of hurdlers these days who can run 100 meters fast, and that’s why you’ve seen that. the times are getting much faster. A few years ago a 12.5 would have won any race, but now, with a 12.5, you finish the second half of the race.
“I’m a runner who builds a lot of power on the track. And so that’s the opposite of what I try to do in the hurdles, because I don’t want to build power between them or I’ll start crashing into them, which will slow me down for a lot of hurdlers, with their technique and mechanics, when they run, they can sprint along the floor or track and not generate that much power, so it’s good for them that they be able to do both I can’t do both so I have to do both.
“The sport has evolved a lot, and some of it might be the shoes or the surfaces we run on that make the time faster. But also a lot, I think, is due to having more education in terms of recovery and their season in terms of planning. as well as better training in athlete nutrition.”
Just keep waiting for the obstacles to get faster and faster.
