By Chris Chavez
February 19, 2024
The Olympic year tends to bring out the best in athletes but while most athletes are aiming to peak in August during the Summer Games, we’re already seeing record-setting performances less than 50 days into the new year.
Here’s a quick roundup of the track world records we saw fall over the past weekend. (Note: While World Athletics recognizes some of these as world bests, we only use world records at CITIUS MAG):
Tia Jones Matches Devynne Charlton’s 60m Hurdles World Record
Last week, Anderson Emerole broke down why this would be the season for the 60m world record to fall and why the Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton’s 7.67 at the Millrose Games was not all that shocking. At the U.S. Championships, Tia Jones, the 2018 World U20 champion, equaled Charlton’s mark with a 7.67 run in her heat before winning the final in 7.68 to qualify for her first senior U.S. team at a global championship.
Jones and Charlton have faced each other three times this season. Charlton holds a 2–1 advantage.
Grant Holloway Breaks His Own 60m Hurdles World Record
110m hurdles and 60m hurdles world champion Grant Holloway broke his own world record with a 7.27 victory in the prelims of the 2024 U.S. Indoor Track and Field Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
With the win, he extended his winning streak in the event to 60 consecutive races. Holloway decided not to contest the final, which was won by 2022 world championship silver medalist Trey Cunningham, since he already has a bye onto team USA for the World Indoor Championships. Holloway is going for his second gold medal in the event.
Letsile Tebogo Breaks the 300m World Record
20-year-old Letsile Tebogo, last year’s 100m silver medalist at the World Championships, used a little bit of Pretoria’s 4,300+ feet of altitude to his advantage as he ran 30.69 at the Simbine Curro Classic Shoot-Out on Saturday to break Wayde van Niekerk’s previous world record of 30.81 from 2017.
Tebogo joins van Niekerk, Michael Johnson (30.85) and Usain Bolt (30.97) as the only men in history to run under 31 seconds.
Femke Bols Breaks Her Own Indoor 400m World Record
At the Dutch indoor national championships, 400m hurdles world champion Femke Bol broke her own indoor 400m world record on Sunday in 49.24. She took .02 seconds off her previous best, which she set almost ago to the day.
Bol now owns six of the top 12 fastest times in the indoor 400m. She will be the gold medal favorite in the 400m at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
Her training partner, Lieke Klaver, finished second in 50.10 – which puts her at No. 9 on the all-time list and No. 2 on the 2024 world list.
Daniel Haugh Adds 49 Centimeters To Weight Throw World Record
Daniel Haugh launched the weight throw 26.35m in the fourth round of competition at the U.S. Indoor Track and Field Championships to take down Lance Deal’s previous world record of 25.86m, which stood since 1995.
The weight throw is not contested at the World Indoor Championships.
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
