Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba became only the second man in history to go under 47 seconds in the 400m hurdles yesterday, breaking the legendary Edwin Moses’ meet record of 47.66 seconds and getting agonisingly close to shattering the world mark of 46.78 seconds set by Kevin Young’s at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
The tearaway Qatari clocked 46.98 seconds at the Paris Diamond League to continue his domination this season during which he set five personal best times besides breaking several meet and Asian records on the way.
Samba’s 46.98 is also a new world lead, beating Rai Benjamin’s 47.02 from the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands finished second in Paris yesterday with a time of 47.54 seconds while world champion Karsten Warholm was third in 48.06.
With a bit of luck, Samba could have broken the world record but he stumbled at the first hurdle to lose precious nano seconds.
“ I made a small mistake at the start, lost my balance on the first hurdle so I did not expect to run so fast. But it feels great to be the second fastest man in the history,” said the 22-year-old.
“I have said told even before that I want to become the fastest man in the world and I work hard to achieve it. It definitelly did not feel like under 47 second race today,” he added.
Samba said he feels like he is getting close to the world record but that wasn’t on his mind at the moment.
“The world record is getting close but I just want to improve step by step and to run fast. I improved my technique since last year and who knows, maybe I can be one second faster next year. I am speechless now.”
Meanwhile, world pole vault champion Sam Kendricks and national hammer throw record holder DeAnna Price will lead a US team missing many top stars at next month’s Athletics World Cup in London.
The team, announced on Friday by USA Track & Field, also will include current indoor women’s 400m champion Courtney Okolo, former indoor high jump gold medallist Vashti Cunningham and Olympic 800m bronze medallist Clayton Murphy.
But top US sprinters Justin Gatlin, Noah Lyles, Christian Coleman and Ronnie Baker as well as pole vaulter Sandi Morris and Shakima Wimbley, the year’s fastest at 400m, will miss the July 14-15 competition at London Stadium. Britain, China, France, Germany, Jamaica, Poland, South Africa and the United States will compete in the first-ever Athletics World Cup. They will contest running events through the 1,500m and all field events with one entry per country.