For four years, every woman who stepped into the blocks for the 100m hurdles was chasing the same number. 12.12 seconds.
It was the number Tobi Amusan had etched into athletics history in Eugene in 2022, turning herself into the fastest woman ever over the hurdles and giving Nigeria one of its most remarkable moments on the global track.
On Thursday night in Zurich, that era came to an end.
American Olympic champion Masai Russell did what no woman had managed to do since Amusan set the record.
She went faster.
Russell stormed to 12.09 seconds at the Weltklasse Zurich meeting, taking three hundredths of a second off Amusan’s world record and becoming the new queen of the women’s 100m hurdles.
And standing in the next lane was the woman whose name had been attached to the record for four extraordinary years.
Amusan finished second in 12.23 seconds, a season’s best, but the night ultimately belonged to Russell.
12.09 seconds that changed everything
There was little doubt about Russell’s intentions once the race began.
The 26-year-old American exploded out of the blocks, found her rhythm almost immediately and attacked the opening hurdles with remarkable speed.
She did not merely edge past Amusan.
She pulled away.
By the time Russell crossed the finish line, the clock had delivered a number that sent a shock through the stadium and athletics world:
12.09.
A new world record.
A new Diamond League record.
A new meeting record.
And, perhaps most significantly, the end of Amusan’s four-year stay at the top.
Russell had entered the race with a personal best of 12.14 seconds, set at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting in May.
In Zurich, she found another level entirely.
She took five hundredths off her previous best and, in the process, took down one of the most celebrated records in modern athletics.
The record Amusan made famous
To understand what Russell has just achieved, it is worth remembering how extraordinary Amusan’s own night in Eugene was.
In July 2022, Amusan ran 12.12 seconds in the semi-final of the World Championships to break the women’s 100m hurdles world record.
It was already a stunning performance.
But Amusan was not finished.
She went on to win the final in 12.06 seconds.
That time would have been another world record, but excessive tailwind meant it could not be ratified as one.
Still, the 12.12-second semi-final run stood.
For four years, it stood alone.
Amusan became the benchmark against which every elite hurdler was measured.
Then Russell arrived in Zurich and moved the benchmark.
Amusan loses the record, but not the fight
For a moment, the result could easily be viewed simply as the end of Amusan’s reign.
But that would miss the bigger story.
Amusan did not disappear from the race.
She ran 12.23 seconds, her best time of the season.
She simply encountered an opponent who produced something extraordinary.
And Amusan appeared to appreciate the significance of the moment.
“Competing in a world record race is amazing,” she said afterwards. “I came out here, and I did my best, and I am happy with this SB.”
That response says plenty about the Nigerian champion.
The record may have changed hands, but Amusan remains one of the defining figures of the event.
She has already experienced what it means to rewrite the history books.
Now she knows what it feels like to watch someone else rewrite her chapter.
A rivalry that has suddenly become very interesting
There is another layer to Thursday’s result.
Russell has been getting the better of Amusan throughout the year.
The American has now beaten the Nigerian in all four of their head-to-head meetings in 2026.
Their overall record, however, remains perfectly balanced at 7-7.
That makes the latest result more than a world record.
It adds another dimension to a rivalry that could define the next phase of women’s 100m hurdles.
Russell has the Olympic title.
Now she has the world record.
Amusan has the experience, the championship pedigree and, perhaps most importantly, the memory of what it feels like to be the athlete everyone else is chasing.
The question is no longer whether Russell can beat Amusan.
She already has.
The more intriguing question is what Amusan does next.
The changing of the guard?
Athletics loves the phrase “changing of the guard”.
Sometimes it is justified.
Sometimes it is premature.
Thursday’s race may eventually prove to be the moment when one generation gave way to another.
But Amusan’s season is not over.
She will now turn her attention to the Diamond League Final in Brussels and the World Ultimate Championships in Budapest.
And there is something compelling about what comes next.
For four years, Amusan ran with the confidence of the woman who owned the fastest time in history.
Now Russell gets to experience something different.
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Every race she enters will carry a number next to her name:
12.09.
The number Amusan once carried.
The number everyone else will now chase.
One record falls. The story continues.
Records are strange things.
They can stand for years and appear almost untouchable, only to disappear in less than 13 seconds.
Amusan’s 12.12 did exactly that.
It survived four years of elite competition before Russell arrived in Zurich and found three hundredths of a second that no one else had been able to find.
But losing a record does not erase what came before it.
Amusan changed the event when she ran 12.12.
She raised the standard.
She showed what was possible.
And now Russell has raised it again.
So perhaps Thursday night was not simply the night Tobi Amusan lost her world record.
It was the night the 100m hurdles moved into its next chapter.
Amusan wrote the history. Russell has just rewritten the headline.
And judging by the rivalry between the two, this story may be far from finished.