Grant Holloway and his neon shoes flew across the track in Eugene, Oregon, Saturday in a pair of performances worthy of a place in the Olympic Games.
Holloway booked his first Olympic appearance in Tokyo this August when he won the final heat of the men’s 110-meter hurdles with a 12.96-second time, enough for a 0.14-second margin of victory.
Holloway impressed even more in the semifinals, where his time of 12.81 seconds came within one hundredth of a second of eclipsing Aries Merritt’s nine-year-old world record.
Holloway was the only runner in the 110-meter hurdles to break the 13-second barrier in either the semifinals or the finals.
The Virginia native entered the week among the favorites after he won the world title in the same event in 2019 at the IAAF World Championships in Qatar with a time of 13.10 seconds and finished runner-up at the US Championships in both 2018 and 2019. The first of the two runner-ups came by two thousandths of a second to Devon Allen, who finished second to Holloway Saturday.
Holloway won three consecutive national championships from 2017-2019 in the 110-meter hurdles during his time in Gainesville as well as three consecutive NCAA crowns in the 60-meter hurdles, the first runner to ever sweep the two events in three straight seasons. He broke a 40-year-old collegiate record in 2019 in the 110-meter when he finished in 12.98 seconds in the championship race, the first college athlete to run faster than 13 seconds.
The Gator legend also won the 60-meter sprint and contributed to the national champion 4x100-meter relay squad in 2019 to finish with a school-record eight career NCAA titles.
Holloway will represent the stars and stripes in Japan this August as he chases another addition to his sterling resume — Olympic gold.
Contact Ryan Haley at rhaley@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @ryan_dhaley.
Ryan Haley, a UF journalism senior with a sports & media specialization from Jacksonville, Florida, is Summer 2022's Engagement Managing Editor. He grew up playing a bunch of different sports before settling on golf, following Rory McIlroy and all Philadelphia sports teams. He also loves all things fiction, reading, watching shows and movies and talking about whatever current story or character is in his head.
