American Grant Holloway made history by storming to an unprecedented third consecutive world indoor 60m hurdles title in Nanjing on Saturday.
The 27-year-old, unbeaten indoors in 11 seasons, clocked 7.42 seconds for victory, with France’s Wilhem Belocian taking silver in 7.54sec, just one-hundredth of a second ahead of China’s Liu Junxi.
Holloway’s victory maintained a win streak that has seen him go undefeated in indoor hurdles races since March 2014, when he was 16 years old, including all preliminaries and in combined events.
Including the 55m hurdles and 60m hurdles, he has now won 94 consecutive indoor races.
His victory was the first time a hurdler had won three successive titles – American Allen Johnson having won three titles, but not in a row (1995, 2003, 2004).
“To win three indoors and three outdoors, I think I’m the first person in history to ever do that. That’s an amazing stat,” said Holloway, whose outdoor successes came in Doha, Eugene and Budapest (2019, 2022, 2023).
“It was great. This one was a little bit different. I didn’t have two great rounds, and had to rely on my experience to get me through the final.
“But I knew what I had to do, I knew what I was missing. With that being said, a big shout-out to the sports staff. Everybody was telling me, ’You’ve done this a million times before, you’ve just got to do it again’.”
Holloway said that the race could well be his last hurrah, with a new discipline on the horizon.
“I think I can put grace in it and hang up the 60m hurdles and try out a new event next year,” he said. “That’s something I can think about.”
Coming through the NCAA system at the University of Florida, Holloway competed not only in the long and short hurdles, but also in the flat sprints over 60 and 100m, as well as relays. He has a long jump best of 8.17m from 2018.
He added that he had his eye on a potential fourth world outdoor title when Tokyo hosts the next championships in September.
“We’ve got the 110m hurdles coming up in the next couple of months, so I will put my best foot forward for that,” said Holloway, the Olympic champion whose 12.81sec in the US Olympic trials in 2021 make him the second-fastest man in history at the event.
“It’s a world championships, you’ll always have nerves for the world championships wherever you’re at.
“I just want to continue to work hard, figure out ways to continue to win, perfect my craft, and continue to challenge myself and my sports staff and coaches to get better.”
In other events on Saturday, American Christopher Bailey won his maiden global crown in the men’s 400m in 45.08sec, leading a US podium sweep ahead of compatriots Brian Faust and Jacory Patterson.
