MADRID: American Grant Holloway broke the world indoor 60m hurdles record that had endured since 1994 on Wednesday, finishing in 7.29 seconds to shave 0.01 seconds off the previous mark set by Briton Colin Jackson.

Holloway, the 110m hurdles world champion, won the race at the Villa de Madrid by 0.22 seconds, extending his victory streak in indoor sprint hurdles to 54 races.

World indoor champion Andrew Pozzi of Britain finished second in a time of 7.51 seconds.

Holloway’s initial time was recorded as 7.32 seconds but was changed to 7.29, and the athlete was informed of his record achievement by a photographer.

“They lied to me, they said it was 7.32 at first,” the 23-year-old Holloway joked in an interview with Spanish television.

“I wouldn’t say it was a perfect race, but I tied my PR in the heat and that usually means I run faster in the final. I just went out there and executed my race.”

Holloway said the outdoor 110m hurdles world record of fellow US sprint hurdler Aries Merritt, set in 2012, was now in his sights.

“But I want to let all this soak in first, then my priority is win the Olympic Trials and then the Olympic gold medal.”

The Netherland’s Nadine Visser ran a season’s best-equalling time of 7.81sec as she won the women’s 60m hurdles.

Gudaf Tsegay claimed the honours in the women’s 3,000m with 8mins 22.65sec — the second fastest indoor time in history — and looked in good shape after claiming the 1,500m indoor world record earlier this month.

Ethiopian Tsegay had also run the best 800m time of the season at the Val-de-Reuil meeting in France 10 days ago.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2021