Alison dos Santos Breaks the 400m Hurdles World Record — With Its Previous Holder Watching From Lane Two

45.80 seconds in Zurich, and Karsten Warholm — the man whose record just fell — finished second in the same race.

By Miles Ashworth · 27 Aug 2026 · 1 min read · United Kingdom edition

Alison dos Santos at the Bislett Games, 2024. Photo: Ssu, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Brazil's Alison dos Santos ran 45.80 seconds in the men's 400m hurdles at the Weltklasse Zürich Diamond League meeting, breaking a world record that had stood since the Tokyo Olympics — Karsten Warholm's 45.94, run in one of the most famous finals in the event's history.

What made it more than just a fast time: Warholm himself was in the race, and finished second in 46.69 as his own record fell in front of him.

Dos Santos was open about what that meant to him: "To break a record no matter how is amazing, but to do it with Karsten was different, because we're cool. He led the way, showed that 45 was possible. I was there when he ran 45 and he was here when I ran 45."

The 400m hurdles is one of athletics' most punishing events — full sprint speed held over a distance that punishes even small technical errors at the barriers — which is part of why its world record has moved so rarely, and why the last man to hold it being the one who watched this one fall means something.