Sydney McLaughlin breaks the world 400m hurdles record at the Tokyo Olympic Games (© AFP / Getty Images)
As the year draws to a close, we look back at the key moments of 2021 in each area of the sport.
The series continues with a review of the hurdles and will be followed over the coming days by reviews of other event groups.
Women’s 100m hurdles
Season top list
| 12.26 | Jasmine Camacho-Quinn 🇵🇷 PUR | Tokyo | 1 August |
| 12.40 | Britany Anderson 🇯🇲 JAM | Tokyo | 1 August |
| 12.42 | Tobi Amusan 🇳🇬 NGR | Zurich | 9 September |
| 12.44 | Tonea Marshall 🇺🇸 | Jacksonville | 29 May |
| 12.47 | Kendra Harrison 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 20 June |
Full season top list
Full 60m hurdles indoor season top list
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Jasmine Camacho-Quinn 🇵🇷 PUR | 1433 |
| 2 | Kendra Harrison 🇺🇸 USA | 1398 |
| 3 | Tobi Amusan 🇳🇬 NGR | 1395 |
| 4 | Nadine Visser 🇳🇱 NED | 1393 |
| 5 | Megan Tapper 🇯🇲 JAM | 1381 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Jasmine Camacho-Quinn 🇵🇷 PUR | 12.37 |
| 🥈 | Kendra Harrison 🇺🇸 USA | 12.52 |
| 🥉 | Megan Tapper 🇯🇲 JAM | 12.55 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Jasmine Camacho-Quinn 🇵🇷 PUR 12.37
Wanda Diamond League: Tobi Amusan 🇳🇬 NGR 12.42
European Indoor Championships (60mH): Nadine Visser 🇳🇱 NED 7.77
South American Championships: Ketiley Batista 🇧🇷 BRA 12.96
World U20 Championships: Ackera Nugent 🇯🇲 JAM 12.95
Season at a glance
Everything came together for Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in 2021.
The 25-year-old, who was left heartbroken after she hit a hurdle and missed out on the final during her Olympic debut in 2016, this year dominated the event. Not only did her Olympic return lead to Puerto Rico’s first Olympic gold medal in athletics, but Camacho-Quinn claimed it in style – breaking the Olympic record with 12.26 in her semifinal and then running 12.37 in the final for the second-fastest title-winning time in Olympic history.
Those were two of the five fastest results of the season, all run by Camacho-Quinn, with her leading 12.26 placing her joint fourth on a world all-time list topped by Kendra Harrison’s 12.20 set in 2016.
In Tokyo, the USA’s Harrison secured silver and Jamaica’s Megan Tapper bronze.
She had one DQ in Florida in May, but Camacho-Quinn was undefeated in her specialist event in 2021, and ran 12.50 or quicker at eight competitions.
Jamaica’s Britany Anderson came closest, with her 12.40 in the Tokyo semifinals, while Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan – who won the Diamond Trophy in Zurich – was third on both the season list and world rankings.
There was record depth in the event, with 10th best in the season list standing at 12.53 and 100th at 13.06 – 0.01 faster than the previous best from 2016.
Indoors, Nadine Visser of the Netherlands – who went on to finish fifth in Tokyo – headed the 60m hurdles list thanks to her 7.77 run to win the European indoor title.
Men’s 110m hurdles
Season top list
| 12.81 | Grant Holloway 🇺🇸 USA | Eugene | 26 June |
| 12.99 | Devon Allen 🇺🇸 USA | Zagreb | 14 September |
| 13.01 | Omar McLeod 🇯🇲 JAM | Florence | 10 June |
| 13.03 | Hansle Parchment 🇯🇲 JAM | Paris | 28 August |
| 13.06 | Shunsuke Izumiya 🇯🇵 JPN | Osaka | 27 June |
Full season top list
Full 60m hurdles indoor season top list
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Devon Allen 🇺🇸 USA | 1438 |
| 2 | Hansle Parchment 🇯🇲 JAM | 1435 |
| 3 | Grant Holloway 🇺🇸 USA | 1434 |
| 4 | Ronald Levy 🇯🇲 JAM | 1417 |
| 5 | Pascal Martinot-Lagarde 🇫🇷 FRA | 1362 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Hansle Parchment 🇯🇲 JAM | 13.04 |
| 🥇 | Grant Holloway 🇺🇸 USA | 13.09 |
| 🥉 | Ronald Levy 🇯🇲 JAM | 13.10 |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Hansle Parchment 🇯🇲 JAM 13.04
Wanda Diamond League: Devon Allen 🇺🇸 USA 13.06
European Indoor Championships (60mH): Wilhem Belocian 🇫🇷 FRA 7.42
South American Championships: Rafael Pereira 🇧🇷 BRA 13.35
World U20 Championships: Sasha Zhoya 🇫🇷 FRA 12.72
Season at a glance
With his world-leading time of 12.81 in the semifinals of the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, Grant Holloway came within one-hundredth of a second of the world record set by Aries Merritt in 2012. It came as no surprise, however, given the 2019 world champion had broken the world 60m hurdles record during the indoor season, clocking 7.29 at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Madrid to improve Colin Jackson’s 1994 mark by 0.01.
In fact, Holloway’s whole indoor season was record-breaking, as he bettered 7.40 in seven races – a record for a single season – while he took his lifetime tally of sub-7.40 performances to nine, equalling Jackson’s record figure.
Unbeaten again indoors, he further extended a 60m hurdles winning streak that now spans six years.
Outdoors, he so very nearly made it a perfect year but there are never guarantees, especially in an event like the hurdles. Heading to the Olympics as the only athlete to have dipped under 13 seconds in the season so far, he ultimately had to be satisfied with silver, as Jamaica’s 2012 bronze medallist Hansle Parchment kept his composure to run a season’s best of 13.04 and get gold.
Later in the season, Devon Allen joined Holloway in going sub-13 seconds, as he clocked a PB of 12.99 in Zagreb at the end of a season in which he won the Diamond Trophy. Those performances helped him to top the world rankings, narrowly ahead of Parchment, Holloway and Olympic bronze medallist Ronald Levy.
Like in the women’s event, the 110m hurdles had record depth in 2021, with the 10th best mark of 13.12 0.01 quicker than the previous best, while the 100th best of 13.59 was 0.02 faster than the previous best for the placing, also recorded in 2016.
Holloway’s indoor achievement was not the only global sprint hurdles record set in 2021, as France’s Sasha Zhoya also wrote his name in the history book. Following a series of strong performances throughout the season, the 19-year-old took to the track for the World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi. His first world record came in the semifinals, as he clocked 12.93 to take 0.06 off the global U20 mark which had been set by his fellow Frenchman Wilhem Belocian in 2014 and equalled by Jamaica’s Damion Thomas in 2018. The next day he went even quicker, stopping the clock at a sensational 12.72 in the final for the fastest time ever recorded for the 110m hurdles at any age level and in any conditions.
Women’s 400m hurdles
Season top list
| 51.46 | Sydney McLaughlin 🇺🇸 USA | Tokyo | 4 August |
| 51.58 | Dalilah Muhammad 🇺🇸 USA | Tokyo | 4 August |
| 52.03 | Femke Bol 🇳🇱 NED | Tokyo | 4 August |
| 52.39 | Shamier Little 🇺🇸 USA | Stockholm | 4 July |
| 52.96 | Anna Ryzhykova 🇺🇦 UKR | Stockholm | 4 July |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Femke Bol 🇳🇱 NED | 1469 |
| 2 | Sydney McLaughlin 🇺🇸 USA | 1424 |
| 3 | Dalilah Muhammad 🇺🇸 USA | 1412 |
| 4 | Shamier Little 🇺🇸 USA | 1403 |
| 5 | Anna Ryzhykova 🇺🇦 UKR | 1394 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Sydney McLaughlin 🇺🇸 USA | 51.46 WR |
| 🥈 | Dalilah Muhammad 🇺🇸 USA | 51.58 |
| 🥉 | Femke Bol 🇳🇱 NED | 52.03 AR |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Sydney McLaughlin 🇺🇸 USA 51.46
Wanda Diamond League: Femke Bol 🇳🇱 NED 52.80
South American Championships: Melissa Gonzalez 🇨🇴 COL 55.68
World U20 Championships: Heidi Salminen 🇫🇮 FIN 56.94
Season at a glance
It is hard to find words strong enough to describe the 400m hurdles in 2021, following a series of performances which left onlookers speechless in awe. Both the women’s and men’s events have been launched to a new level and in the women’s 400m hurdles it has been Sydney McLaughlin leading the way.
First, at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, the then 21-year-old stormed to a time of 51.90 to break her teammate Dalilah Muhammad’s world record and become the first woman to beat 52 seconds for the discipline. Muhammad – who ran 52.16 in Doha in 2019 – was second in 52.42.
They went head-to-head again at the Olympics but this time both athletes smashed the 52-second barrier, with McLaughlin breaking the world record again with 51.46 and Muhammad running 51.58. Femke Bol of the Netherlands came close to the barrier, too, clocking 52.03 for bronze.
McLaughlin and Muhammad have both now gone under 53 seconds on seven occasions during their careers.
Four of the top five times on the world all-time list have been set in 2021, with the USA’s Shamier Little joining the party thanks to her 52.39 run in Stockholm.
Ukraine’s Anna Ryzhykova joined them in dipping under 53 seconds in 2021, with the depth down to 10th place on the season list the best since 2016. Between them, the quintet ran the season’s 16 fastest times, with Jamaica’s Janieve Russell next on the list with 53.08 for fourth place in Tokyo.
Bol’s brilliant breakthrough saw the 21-year-old improve her best from 53.79 down to 52.03 in just over 12 months.
Men’s 400m hurdles
Season top list
| 45.94 | Karsten Warholm 🇳🇴 NOR | Tokyo | 3 August |
| 46.17 | Rai Benjamin 🇺🇸 USA | Tokyo | 3 August |
| 46.72 | Alison dos Santos 🇧🇷 BRA | Tokyo | 3 August |
| 47.08 | Kyron McMaster 🇻🇬 IVB | Tokyo | 3 August |
| 47.12 | Abderrahman Samba 🇶🇦 QAT | Tokyo | 3 August |
World Athletics rankings
| 1 | Karsten Warholm 🇳🇴 NOR | 1559 |
| 2 | Alison dos Santos 🇧🇷 BRA | 1471 |
| 3 | Rai Benjamin 🇺🇸 USA | 1463 |
| 4 | Kyron McMaster 🇻🇬 IVB | 1420 |
| 5 | Abderrahman Samba 🇶🇦 QAT | 1406 |
Olympic medallists
| 🥇 | Karsten Warholm 🇳🇴 NOR | 45.94 WR |
| 🥈 | Rai Benjamin 🇺🇸 USA | 46.17 AR |
| 🥉 | Alison dos Santos 🇧🇷 BRA | 46.72 AR |
| Full results | ||
Major winners
Olympic Games: Karsten Warholm 🇳🇴 NOR 45.94
Wanda Diamond League: Karsten Warholm 🇳🇴 NOR 47.35
South American Championships: Mahau Suguimati 🇧🇷 BRA 51.25
World U20 Championships: Berke Akcam 🇹🇷 TUR 49.38
Season at a glance
Karsten Warholm didn’t just break the men’s 400m hurdles record in 2021, he absolutely annihilated it.
First, the two-time world champion clocked 46.70 on home soil in Oslo to take 0.08 off Kevin Young’s world record set at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. It was a remarkable response to the 46.83 run by Rai Benjamin at the US Olympic Trials just a few days earlier – a performance which had replaced Warholm’s previous best of 46.87 as No.2 on the world all-time list.
The two athletes continued to push each other to even greater things and at the Olympic Games in Tokyo Benjamin improved to 46.17 but astonishingly, that was only enough for silver. Two tenths ahead of him, and breaking 46 seconds, was Warholm, who crossed the finish line with a time of 45.94 on the clock. In fact, the final was so quick that the top three all finished inside Young’s previous world record time, with Brazil’s Alison dos Santos clocking 46.72 for bronze. Kyron McMaster’s 47.08 – a national record for the British Virgin Islands – also moved him into the world all-time top 10.
Warholm, who also claimed the Diamond Trophy, was last beaten in his specialist event in 2018 and now possesses nine of the top 20 performances on the world all-time list.
The 10th best mark this season is 48.11, a record for depth.
The all-time list was also rewritten at U20 level, with the USA’s Sean Burrell making history at the NCAA Championships in Eugene. Just two months after his first ever 400m hurdles race, the 19-year-old clocked 47.85 to become the only U20 athlete to have ever dipped under 48 seconds in the discipline, improving the world U20 record of 48.02 which had been set by Danny Harris in 1984.
It was his seventh PB in as many competitions and put him seventh on the season list.
World Athletics
