From winning the gold medal at the Napoli 2019 FISU Universiade to beating the world record at the Diamond League Meeting in Zurich, Switzerland on 27 August, the Brazilian athlete never stopped growing.
Brazilian Alison dos Santos (26) made sports history in the 400-meter hurdles. In a sensational race at the Weltklasse Meeting in Zurich, Switzerland, he sprinted to victory in 45.80 seconds, setting a new world record. He shattered the previous record held by Karsten Warholm (45.94 seconds), which the Norwegian had set on 3 August 2021, at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The South American once again significantly improved upon the world-leading time of the year (46.43) he had set just four days earlier in Chorzów. He literally outclassed second-place finisher Warholm in their head-to-head matchup: Although the now former world record holder clocked 46.69 seconds—just shy of his own old meet record from 2025 (46.70)—he didn’t stand a chance against the unstoppable Brazilian in the final meters. The Nigerian Ezekiel Nathaniel rounded out the podium by a wide margin (47.50).
Already impressive seven years ago
Alison dos Santos started collecting gold medals quite some time ago. He took part to the Napoli 2019 Summer Universiade and impressed everyone in his already favourite event, the 400 meter-hurdles, winning with a time of 48.57.
Dos Santos' golden race in 2019
Since then, the impressive and resilient Brazilian – he was badly burnt by oil at the extremely young age of 10 months – has never stopped his progression. His highlights undoubtedly being his World Champion title in Eugene (USA) in 2022, his Olympic bronze medal in Paris 2024 and his silver World Championship medal in Tokyo last year.
The future is looking bright for Alison Dos Santos, who is a great example of world university sports as a springboard for top level athletes and great human beings.
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