'Just too fast’: Grant Holloway sizzles in 110-meter hurdles

'Just too fast’: Grant Holloway sizzles in 110-meter hurdles

EUGENE, Ore. — Grant Holloway is the rare caliber of human to whom second best in the world sounds like an insult. The Olympic silver medal he earned three summers ago in Tokyo resides nowhere special, packed among the rest of his awards. He rarely glimpses it. What for others would be a lifetime achievement is for Holloway a source of motivation.

A 26-year-old from Chesapeake, Va., of nonchalant confidence and elastic legs, Holloway extended one of the dominant reigns of American track and field and ensured his opportunity for redemption in Paris. Holloway laid waste to a strong 110-meter hurdles field in 12.86 seconds at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, the second-best time of his career.

Holloway burst from the blocks with his customary explosive start, leading from the echo of the starting gun. He only extended his lead, his entire race a model of clinical power. Upon seeing the Hayward Field clock, he punched his fist in the air. He had come within 0.06 seconds of the world record Aries Merritt set in September 2012. His next assault on 12.80 will have to wait until Paris. Freddie Crittenden (12.93) and Daniel Roberts (12.96) will join him.

Next to Holloway’s predictable excellence, Day 6 of the trials provided surprises both welcome and wrenching. Lolo Jones, who made her first Olympic team in 2008, ran the 100-meter hurdles opening round at age 41. Eric Holt’s inspiring trials run ended in despondence — he qualified for the 800 final on time, only to face disqualification for a lane infringement. Holt filed an appeal, but it was denied by USA Track & Field.

Friday also delivered huge performances from high-wattage names. Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, the stars who claimed 100-meter championships last weekend, both advanced to finals in the 200 that will make for a glittery Saturday night. Richardson won her semifinal heat in 21.92 seconds, second behind only Gabby Thomas in the round.

Lyles nearly made low-effort history. He cruised to the finals in 19.60 seconds, which would have been a U.S. trials record if not for an illegal wind reading. It still stood as a staggering time for a semifinal in which Lyles gently slowed at the line. Only eight other men have run faster in legal wind. When Lyles saw the clock, his eyes bulged and he fanned himself as if to ask, “Oh, did I do that?”

Maybe Holloway does not match the star power of Lyles and Richardson, but on the track there is no one more dominant. Excepting perhaps world record holders Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Ryan Crouser, Holloway walked into Hayward Field on Friday night with a case for being the best at what he does of any athlete in Eugene.

“Hell, yeah,” 400 hurdles Olympic silver medalist Rai Benjamin said. “He’s a three-time world champ. I’m not even a world champ. Sydney missed world champs last year — she’s not a world champ. She’s won world champs previously, but he repeated back-to-back in a dense, dense field.”

EUGENE, OREGON - JUNE 28: Bronze medalist Daniel Roberts, silver medalist Freddie Crittenden and gold medalist Grant Holloway pose in front of a miniature Eiffel Tower after competing in the men's 110 meter hurdles final on Day Eight of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Track & Field Trials at Hayward Field on June 28, 2024 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Since the start of 2021, Holloway had entered 90 races, relays included, and won 83. He has won three consecutive world championships. In February, he broke the indoor 60 hurdles world record. The 13-second mark has been breached 90 times in the history of the 110 hurdles. At age 26, not even halfway into his career, Holloway had done it nine times, including twice this week.

Holloway won Virginia state championship in three events — and would have won four had he not run into Noah Lyles in the 200 meters. He scored 15 touchdown as a high school senior and could have played football at Florida. Holloway is such a gifted athlete, Benjamin has observed, that he actually must gear down in the middle of a race to accommodate the footwork required.

“He’s just too fast,” Benjamin said. “The hurdles come a little bit quicker for him. He wants to slow down a little bit in the latter end so he can get those hurdles right. He’s just so quick. He’s just blessed that way. Grant’s a beast. Always been a beast.”

Amid his dominance, Holloway has developed a familiar relationship with the near miss. At the 2021 trials, Holloway ran a 110 hurdles semifinal in 12.81 seconds — a hundredth of a second away from Merritt’s world record. He has circled the world record for so long that it has started to taunt him. When Holloway finished his first preliminary round in 12.92 seconds, he saw the decimal .83 on the scoreboard and thought it was his time. It was only part of Lyles’s 100-meter time from the night before, but it provided Holloway brief and stinging aggravation.

“I was about to throw everything and be like, ‘I’m not doing it anymore,’ ” Holloway said.

A more painful loss came in the biggest race of his life. At the Tokyo Olympics, Holloway burst out to his typical massive lead. He cruised over the first seven hurdles in total command. When he leaped over the eight, it looked as if he had landed in quicksand. Jamaican Hansle Parchment passed Holloway and stole the Olympic gold medal that had been in his grasp. On the track, Holloway clapped his hands, exhaled a deep breath and shook his head. The silver he won, Holloway said at the time, “sucks.”

Holloway has done nothing but win ever since. His world championships have eased the sting of finishing second in Tokyo.

“Motivation, yes,” Holloway said. “Do I look at it everyday like I should have been mine? No. I’ve done four world championships, indoors and out, and I’ve got four gold medals. I feel like I’ve already solidified myself in that realm.”

Holt, the 29-year-old who signed his first sponsorship deal this week, learned he would not be joining Holloway in the cruelest fashion imaginable. Running in the last of three 800 semifinal heats, Holt finished fourth in 1:45.05, a personal best that qualified him on time. He conducted a stirring on-track interview, thanking coaches at his small running club, Empire Elite, for helping him reach a final of the trials.

As he walked back through the warmup area, Holt heard something had gone wrong. An official had raised a flag as he sped through the first turn of the race, ruling he stepped on the line. As he met with reporters, he did not know his fate.

“I don’t want to get my highest of my highs of my dream and then get DQ’d,” Holt said.

Holt studied a monitor and saw his name disappear from the list of finalists.

“Oh, God,” Holt said. “I don’t like this.”

Holt and his coach, John Trautmann, filed an appeal with USATF that was later denied. He will not be going to Paris.

The trials would continue for an unlikely competitor. Jones, who made three Olympic teams in the hurdles and then switched to bobsled and the Winter Olympics, advanced to the semifinals despite finishing last in her heat in 14.86 seconds.

Owing to multiple scratches and an expanded qualifying system for the opening round, all 27 hurdlers who entered advanced. Nia Ali, the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, decided on an energy-conservation strategy with a bizarre aesthetic: She trotted out of the blocks and loped gently over hurdles to finish in 20.38 seconds.

Jones felt “pushed out” by U.S. bobsled officials because of her age, she said. Jones returned to hurdling. At a Gainesville, Fla. track meet in April, Jones ran the 100 hurdles in 13.11, comfortably under the 13.25-second qualifying standard. Jones’s time, she said, increased because of a hamstring tear she suffered four weeks ago and barely recovered from in time to run.

“I’m so grateful for everyone who cheered for me,” Jones said. “It’s been so long, I thought people forgot. It means the world for me for people to remember or shout my name. Because I was terrified on that start line. I was crying this morning because I thought I was going to have to pull out of the race. For me to get on that start line and get through all 10 hurdles was a huge victory.”

Lolo Jones competes in a heat women's 100-meter hurdles during the U.S. Track and Field Olympic Team Trials Friday, June 28, 2024, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)