Track and field trials: Grant Holloway just misses world record

EUGENE, Ore. –The question was do you feel it when you’re running a world record?

“You don’t,” said Holloway, who has twice lowered the world indoor 60 meter high hurdles record. “You just hope and pray or you feel the momentum at the end of the race. You just hope and pray it’s what you want and you look up at the clock and see what it is.”

So after lunging across the finish line of the Olympic trials 110-meter high hurdles final Friday night, Holloway, the four-time world champion, immediately looked up at the scoreboard on Hayward Field’s south end.

When he clasped his hands on the sides of his head, threw back his head and let out a deep and aggrieved scream, his body contorting in frustration it was clear he hadn’t seen what he had hoped: a new world record.

Or maybe Holloway was clutching his head to protect himself from the roar that accompanied him over each of the 42-inch hurdles to a world leading 12.86 second clocking.

Hayward Field cranked up to 11.

Or maybe the knowledge that he was perhaps a clipped eighth hurdle away from finally breaking Aries Merritt’s 12-year-old world record of 12.80 was too much to bear.

“Yeah, I was kind of mad at myself because for the first time in a long time, I hit a hurdle,” Holloway said. “And it kind of threw off my rhythm, but I knew what kind of pace I was on. So I knew it was there.

“So we just have to continue to just work, continue to freshen up, sharpen our knives and get ready (for the Olymics).”

Behind Holloway, Freddie Crittenden was second in 12.93, Daniel Roberts third in 12.96 in the first race ever in which three runners dipped under 13.

Anticipation of a Holloway world record had been building all week in Tracktown USA. Holloway opened with a then world leading 12.92 in Monday’s opening round, initially thinking, mistakenly, that he had run 12.83, just two hundredths of second off the world record.

“I was about to throw everything in and say I’m not doing it anymore,” the seven-time NCAA champion for Florida said.

He followed up with a 12.96 in Thursday’s semifinals.

“As you know, in track and field it doesn’t matter what you’ve done last year or two years ago,” he said. “It’s how you’re doing it now. The big thing for me is I’ve been having good practices. As long as it translates for me from practice to the track, I’m good.”

“The only other thing was to put pressure on the field, let everyone know I’m still on top, no diddy, and see what happens after that.”

World record expectations were further heightened Friday when New Balance’s Gabby Thomas won her 200 semi in a world leading 21.78 and then Noah Lyles, the reigning world 100 and 200 champion, took his semi in a wind-aided 19.60 with five men dipping under 20 seconds.

For Holloway it’s not about what he did last year or the year before when he won the 110 highs at both the 2022 and 2023 World Championships.

It’s about what he didn’t do in 2021.

Holloway went to the Tokyo Olympics as one of the biggest favorites of the Games after he just missed breaking Merritt’s world record with a 12.81 blast in the trials semis. But he was upset by Jamaica’s Hansle Parchmant 13.04 to 13.09.

Holloway keeps his Olympic silver medal in the same box that holds his four World golds.

“Motivation, yes,” he said. “Do I look at it every day and say it should be mine? No.

“I’ve done four world championships after that, indoors and outdoors combined, and I’ve got four gold medals. So I already solidified myself.”

But the absence of an Olympic gold medal on his resume might be the only explanation as to why Holloway for all his domination of his event the past three seasons is not seen in the same galaxy as hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone or Lyles.

“I think Grant deserves a lot more respect,” said Rai Benjamin, the American record-holder in the 400 hurdles. “I think it’s similar to F1 when Lewis (Hamilton) was dominating. Everybody was, ‘Oh, whatever. That’s just what Mercedes does. They don’t look at how good a driver he was. He’s dominated for so long, it kind of goes under the radar.”

Holloway was pursued by Georgia for football, and Florida for track while at Chesapeake, Virginia’s Grassfield High. He chose track over life between the hedges, going on to win seven NCAA titles for the Gators.

“I’ve been in this zone,” Holloway said. “I’ve been in this funk. I’ve been in this thing where I’m just continuing to pump out the 12.9s like Aries did in 2012. And I know my progression. So we’re just trying to stay consistent in that aspect.”