Minutes after breaking the 400m hurdles world record in August, Alison Dos Santos had a message for his younger self.
“Patience is a virtue and everything in its time. Don’t rush things. The process is there for a reason,” said the Brazilian, a huge smile breaking across his face.
With his stunning 45.80 at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Zurich, Dos Santos had become the fastest man in history and the new undisputed king of the 400m hurdles.
It was the crowning moment of the 26-year-old’s career and the ultimate reward for years of patience.
With three Diamond Trophies, a world title and two Olympic bronze medals, Dos Santos was already one of the greatest hurdlers in history.
Alongside rivals Karsten Warholm and Rai Benjamin, he was one of three athletes who had taken the men’s 400m hurdles to dizzying new heights since 2020.
Yet for all his success, Dos Santos had never managed to fully step out of his rivals’ shadows.
At the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Dos Santos ran 46.72, just 0.02 seconds short of the then world record.
Yet even that blistering time was only enough for third place, as Warholm smashed his own record with 45.94 and Benjamin picked up silver with 46.17.
“That hurt a lot and I’ve worked hard in the years since to get here and guarantee that next time I will cross the line in first.”
Dos Santos conquered the world the following year, storming to the world and Diamond League titles.
Yet for some, that success still had an asterisk next to it, with Warholm absent for much of the season due to a hamstring injury.
The Brazilian then suffered his own injury setback, undergoing knee surgery in early 2023 before battling back to win a second Diamond League title in 2024.
“Three years ago I needed surgery, but I never doubted that I would come back stronger,” he said at the Diamond League Final in Brussels this year.
For beneath the Brazilian’s easy-going exterior was always a ferocious competitor who was desperate to be the undisputed number one.
In 2026, he did just that.
With Olympic champion Benjamin having switched his focus to the 400m flat, many had tipped Warholm to be the man to beat ahead of this season.
Instead, it was Dos Santos who dominated like never before, scoring victory after victory over his Norwegian rival.
It began at the Diamond League season opener in Keqiao, when the Brazilian clocked 33.01 to beat Warholm in the 300m hurdles, an event widely considered to be the Norwegian’s forté.
He followed that up with another impressive win in the 400m hurdles Xiamen a week later, before beating Warholm on home turf in Oslo in June.
That put Dos Santos in the driving seat in the race to qualify for the final, even as Warholm set a new world lead in the Brazilian’s absence in London the following month.
Dos Santos soon dispatched that world lead himself, clocking 46.43 in Silesia to notch up yet another victory over Warholm.
Asked what it would take to beat Dos Santos in Zurich, Warholm was at a loss to answer.
“He’s been faster than me this year, the times show that,” said the Norwegian, while also noting that “most of the races have been pretty close”.
At the Letzigrund Stadium the following night, it wasn’t close.
As Dos Santos crossed the line in 45.80, Warholm could only watch on aghast several strides behind while the Letzigrund Stadium exploded around him.
Dos Santos had beaten his rival for the fifth time in five Diamond League races, snatching his world record from underneath him.
After years of being one of the hurdles’ holy trinity, the Brazilian had finally achieved total supremacy, penning his own glorious chapter in one of the decade’s most enthralling sporting rivalries.
Warholm, no doubt, will be back for revenge in 2027. Yet for now, there is only man to beat in the men’s 400m hurdles.
As he crowned his season with a third Diamond League title at the series final in Brussels a week later, Dos Santos said he felt like a new man.
“It is a different feeling to step on to the track having broken the world record and holding the fastest time in the event,” he said. “It’s like being a different guy in a way.”
