Masai Russell had been chasing Tobi Amusan’s world record for months. In Zurich, she finally caught it… and then left it behind.

The American Olympic champion delivered the race she had been promising all season, storming to 12.09 seconds in the 100m hurdles at the Zurich Diamond League on Thursday. With the wind completely still at 0.0m/s, Russell took three hundredths off Amusan’s four-year-old world record of 12.12.

And there was something almost poetic about who finished behind her. Amusan herself crossed the line second in a season’s best 12.23, watching the record she had protected since the 2022 World Championships disappear in front of her. European champion Nadine Visser completed the podium in 12.34.

For Amusan, however, the moment was not about bitterness. Instead, she appreciated being part of a race that would immediately enter athletics history.
“Competing in a world record race is amazing. I came out here, and I did my best, and I am happy with this SB.”

Russell’s 12.09 also added another record to an extraordinary Zurich evening. Earlier at the same meeting, Alison dos Santos had broken Karsten Warholm’s 400m hurdles world record, meaning the crowd had witnessed two world records in the hurdles on one unforgettable night.

Talking about the American superstar, Russell had not exactly kept her ambitions secret. Long before Thursday night, the American had repeatedly spoken about chasing the mark. Now, she had finally turned those words into a number no woman had ever produced before.

Masai Russell turned a bold promise into history

The signs had been there all season… In May, Russell ran 12.14 seconds in Xiamen, breaking the American record and moving within two hundredths of Amusan’s world record. It was the second-fastest time ever recorded under legal wind conditions, and suddenly the once seemingly untouchable 12.12 looked vulnerable.

Russell knew it, too. “I’ve been saying all year that I’m going to break the world record. I don’t know when it’s going to come, but I keep getting closer and closer,” she said after her Xiamen victory.

That confidence had not appeared overnight. Russell had already established herself as one of the event’s elite, winning Olympic gold in Paris in 2024 and holding the NCAA record in the 100m hurdles. But this season, something had changed. She was no longer simply trying to win races. She was chasing history.

Even in September 2025, Russell had spoken openly about wanting to surpass Amusan’s mark. “You can shoot for the moon and land on the stars, or you can shoot for the moon and land on the moon,” she said. “So for me, that’s always the goal. The goal is to run faster than 12.12 (seconds).”

She even believed the event could eventually dip below 12 seconds. “I think sub-12 is definitely possible,” Russell said, pointing to how quickly elite hurdling had evolved. Times around 12.20 were becoming increasingly common, making the idea of breaking the barrier feel less like fantasy and more like an approaching reality.

Zurich was where that belief finally became reality.

She has now become the first woman to combine Olympic gold with the world record in the event since Bulgaria’s Yordanka Donkova, who accomplished the feat after winning Olympic gold in 1988.

For Amusan, meanwhile, the night represented a different kind of milestone. She may have lost her world record, but she was still fast enough to produce her best time of the season… and she did it while standing beside the athlete who had finally taken her place at the top.