By Lori Ewing
Sept 3 (Reuters) – Olympic champion Masai Russell says she has unlocked “a new level” after breaking the women’s 100 metres hurdles world record last week, warning her rivals that there could be even more to come as she targets victories in Brussels and Budapest.
Russell stunned the athletics world when she clocked 12.09 seconds at the Diamond League meeting in Zurich a week ago, taking three hundredths of a second off Nigerian Tobi Amusan’s world record of 12.12.
The American will return to action at this weekend’s Diamond League Final in Brussels before heading to Budapest for next week’s inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships.
“I still feel like I’m in even better shape than where I was last week. So that’s kind of crazy to say,” Russell told reporters in a video call on Thursday. “I think I just unlocked a new level. So it’ll be interesting to see. It’ll be interesting to just continue to dominate.”
Far from viewing her world record as a ceiling, Russell believes her best performances may still lie ahead, with her 12.09 run raising the prospect that the once-unthinkable 12-second barrier could eventually fall.
“I think of course the standard that I’ve set running 12.0 is always a new standard to set. Everything seems impossible until it’s done,” she said. “I’m not putting a limit on anything. I think that there’s still so much room for me to get stronger.
“Even when I was running the 12.09 race, I didn’t feel like the hurdles were coming up in a way where I couldn’t control it. I do think that there’s a little more in there.”
CONFIDENT COACH
Her confidence is shared by coach Lonnie Greene, who ha been predicting a world record for years.
“He has been saying ‘world record, world record, world record’ for literally the last couple years,” Russell said. “He always says to go out there, be you, race to win, and time will take care of itself.”
The record marked a full-circle moment for Greene, who has guided Russell since she was a technically raw 18-year-old.
“He was over the moon,” she said of his reaction to the record.
Despite etching her name in the history books with a new world record, Russell said her Paris Olympic title remains the crowning achievement of her career.
“The Olympic gold trumps everything, just because no one can ever take my gold medal from me,” she said. “With a record … records are meant to be broken.”
There have been suggestions the height of the women’s sprint hurdles be raised from 88.3 to 91 centimetres, to shift the event’s focus from pure raw speed to more of a balance of speed and technical clearance efficiency.
Russell is not a fan.
“I’m opposed to raising the hurdles because people think that just because the times have gotten faster over time, that means the hurdles need to raise up,” she said. “We’ve just gotten more resources, more technology. We’re learning more. We know more than we did 30 years ago.”
(Reporting by Lori Ewing)
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