Two records in forty minutes for Alison Dos Santos and Masai Russell: a behind-the-scenes look at the magical evening in Zurich

The Diamond League meet in Zurich delivered a memorable evening. In just forty minutes, in fact, two new world records were set: first, Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos ran the 400-meter hurdles in 45.80 seconds, improving on Karsten Warholm’s previous record from 2021 by a full 14 hundredths of a second, shortly afterward, American Masai Russell sent the crowd into a frenzy when she clocked 12.09 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles, breaking Tobi Amusan’s previous world record of 12.12 seconds, set in 2022.

After the race, Russell told Runnerspace that she had run the race almost without realizing what was happening: “I can’t even remember it. I just know that the start was fantastic, and then, when I looked up, I was already crossing the finish line.” The American then saw the time on the scoreboard and realized she had achieved something special: “When I saw 12.09, I knew I’d done it,” she said. “I was so moved; I’d made a dream come true.”

Russell also said she was inspired by Dos Santos himself. The 2024 Paris Olympic bronze medalist had, in fact, set his record just forty minutes earlier, becoming only the second man in history to break 46 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles, after Norway’s Warholm: “When I heard that Alison had broken the world record, I thought that this track is truly something special,” said Masai Russell. “I was ready to give it my all,” said the American champion.

In the end, she also set her own world record, in front of an excited crowd. Russell also revealed how much she was fired up by the record set less than an hour earlier: “Alison’s record motivated me so much. This is the best place I could have imagined to break the world record.”