Nia Ali continued her remarkable 2023 season with the 4th-fastest hurdles time of her incredible career Tuesday at the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix Diamond League meet.
Ali, a 2006 graduate of Pleasantville High School, placed 2nd to world record holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria in the 100-meter hurdles the Bregyó Athletic Center in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, 40 miles south of Budapest, where Ali will race in the World Championships next month.
Amusan set the world record of 12.12 last July when she won the World Championships at Heyward Field in Eugene, Ore. Ali ran her PR of 12.34 – No. 12 in world history – when she won the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, in October 2019.
On Tuesday, Amusan won the race in 12.35, and Ali was 2nd in 12.41. Alaysha Johnson and Tia Jones of the U.S. took 3rd and 4th in 12.50 and 12.51.
Ali, 34 and with three kids, has only run faster three times in her life – in the Worlds final at Doha in 2019, the Nationals final in Eugene last month and in Chorzow, Poland, on Sunday. So four of the five-fastest times of her life have come in the past 11 days and six of her 11-fastest times ever have come this spring.
Ali did not compete in 2020 because of COVID or in 2021, which she took off to focus on her family. So from Worlds in Doha on Oct. 6, 2019, until a meet at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., on March 19, 2022, she didn’t run a 100-meter hurdles race for 894 days.
She’s come back stronger than ever and is currently No. 5 in the world but only 6-100ths of a second behidn No. 1 Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, who ran 12.31 in Los Angeles in May.
With her 12.41 Tuesday, her 12.37 and 12.43 at Nationals and her 12.38 two days ago in Chorzow, Poland, she currently owns four of the 19-fastest times run in the world this year.
Ali’s 12.37 made her the fastest woman 34 years old or older in history.
Ali, Kendra Harrison and Masai Russell will represent the U.S. at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Aug. 19-27.
The first round of hurdles is scheduled for 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 22, with the semifinals at 4:40 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23, and the finals at 3:25 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24.
Ali will try to become only the third U.S. woman to win multiple World Championships. Gail Devers won in 1993 in Stuttgart, 1995 in Gothenburg and 1997 in Athens, and Michelle Perry in 2005 in Helsinki and 2007 in Osaka. The only other double winner is Austrailian Sally Pearson, who won in Daegu, South Korea, in 2011 and London in 2017.
The only American women in history to run faster than Ali are Harrison [12.20 in London in 2016], Brianna McNeal [12.26 in Des Moines in 2013] and Devers [12.33 in Sacramento in 2000].
Here’s a look at the 10-fastest times of Ali’s life:
12.34 … World Championships [f], Doha, Qatar, Oct. 6, 2019 [1st]
12.37 … U.S. Championships, [f], Eugene, Ore., July 8, 2023 [1st]
12.38 … Memorial Kamila Skolimowska Diamond League, Stadion Śląski [f], Chorzów, Poland, July 16, 2023 [3rd]
12.41 … Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix [f], Székesfehérvár, Hungary, July 18, 2023 [2nd]
12.43 … U.S. Championships, Eugene [sf], Ore., July 8, 2023 [—]
12.44 … World Championships [sf], Doha, Qatar, Oct. 6, 2019 [—]
12.48 … U.S. Championships [f], Des Moines, Iowa, June 22, 2013 [3rd]
12.49 … U.S. Championships [sf], Eugene, Ore., June 25, 2022 [—]
12.52 … U.S. Championships [sf], Sacramento, Calif., June 24, 2017 [—]
12.53 … Galan Bauhaus, Stockholm, June 30, 2022 [3rd]
12.53 … Tom Jones Memorial, Gainesville, Fla., April 15, 2023 [1st]
12.53 … U.S. Championships [h], Eugene, Ore., July 7, 2023 [—]
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 