A sideways take a look at the ladies’s 100m hurdles
I’ve all the time been fascinated with the ladies’s dash hurdles, and they’ve by no means been higher than they’re now. What has specifically struck me is how vacation occasions have advanced during the last two Olympic cycles.
In 2015, Danielle Williams gained the sector championship with a time of 12.57. The next yr, Brianna Rollins gained Olympic gold with a time of 12.48. Sally Pearson gained the 2017 global championship with a time of 12.59. Since then, occasions have simply gotten quicker and quicker.
In 2021, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn took Olympic gold in 12.37, a time which in Paris 3 years later would now not also have were given you at the podium, with Masai Russell successful in 12.33 and the bronze medalist completing in 12.36.
The similar development may also be famous on this planet championship, with Pearson’s 12.59 for gold in 2017 now not enough to get some of the medals in any next International Championships. In 2019, Nia Ali changed into global champion, working 12.34. 2022 may also be discounted because the medalists’ occasions of 12.06 and 12.23 have been wind-assisted. 2023 Daniel Williams gained a 2nd International name in 12.43, working in lane 2. Successful a championship is ready progressing during the rounds and generating the wanted time. In the ones 2023 International Championships, Keni Harrison ran 12.22 in a prelim however best 12.46 within the ultimate. Alternatively, Williams confirmed very good pageant control, working 12.50 within the prelim and 12.51 within the semi – sufficient to succeed in the overall, the place she discovered the time she had to win.
It’s now not simply in championships. The days are going mad. Take the 9 Diamond League 100h races. The early season races have been one in occasions 12.45 to twelve.63, However because the season improved, We noticed Jasmine Camacho-Quinn when in 12.35, 12.36, and 12.38, and Ackera Nugent successful two times, in 12.24 and 12.29, out of the ordinary occasions.
In Brussels, I took the chance to invite double-world champion Danielle Williams what was once going down on Earth.
“ I would definitely agree that there are more fast hurdlers now than a couple years before. But the 100m hurdles have always been more about speed than technique. Because the hurdles are always so low, it’s always about how fast you can run. ‘Run’ is not the right word because you don’t usually run between hurdles, but whoever can move the fastest in between. So the faster you are on the flat, the quicker you can escape not being as good a technical hurdler because it’s not about technical but about how quickly you can get back to the track and run. There are a lot of hurdlers these days who can run a fast 100 meters, and that’s why you’ve seen the times getting so much faster. A couple of years ago, 12.5 would win any given race, but now, with 12.5, you’re finishing in the second half of the race.
“I am the runner who generates a lot of force on the track. And so that is counter to what I’m trying to do in the hurdles because I don’t want to generate force between them, or I will start crashing into them, which will slow me down. But for many hurdlers, with their technique and the mechanics when they’re running, they can scoot along the floor or the track and not generate as much force, so it works for them that they can do both. I can’t do both, so I have to do either.
“The sport has evolved a lot, and some might be shoes or the surfaces we’re running on that are making times faster. But also a lot of it, I think, is due to having a lot more education in terms of recovery and how to plan their season as well as better training athletes nutrition”.
Simply stay anticipating the hurdles to get quicker and quicker!
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