Two world records fell in Zurich. Official approval usually took over three months.
Alison dos Santos ran 45.80 in the 400m hurdles and Masai Russell 12.09 in the 100m hurdles in Zurich on 27 August. Both were world records.
What happened
Alison dos Santos set a world 400m hurdles record of 45.80 and Masai Russell a world 100m hurdles record of 12.09 at the Weltklasse Zurich, breaking the marks of Karsten Warholm (45.94) and Tobi Amusan (12.12).
Both records came within one hour at the Weltklasse Zurich on . Alison dos Santos beat Karsten Warholm’s record from the Tokyo Olympics by 0.14 seconds, and Masai Russell beat Tobi Amusan’s by 0.03 seconds.
On the same night Audrey Werro set a Diamond League record in the 800m, and Kenny Bednarek ran 19.62 in the 200m, the fastest time in the world this year.
Neither time is a world record yet in the official sense. World Athletics ratifies, or formally confirms, a record only after it checks the paperwork on timing, wind, the track and doping tests. It announces each group of records in a press release. The Zurich report does not mention this process.
The federation’s own releases show how long this takes, and it has become slower. Its release confirmed seven senior records from the first five months of 2026. The quickest came 88 days after the London Marathon on .
In 2025 the wait ran from 29 days for Duplantis’s 6.29m to 489 days for Wanyonyi’s road mile.
Sources: World Athletics (2, 3, 4), Al Jazeera
The Pattern
Only two of the last eight records were confirmed within 92 days. We looked at the last eight senior world records that World Athletics confirmed, ordered by the date of the performance. For each, we counted the days from the performance to the press release that confirmed it.
Show the other 6 cases
The Read
Only the question can be judged from these cases. Two of the last eight records were confirmed inside 92 days, and both were April marathons confirmed in the same July release. The other six waited 106 to 167 days. The longer record since is kinder, eleven of 25, because 2025 moved faster: three Duplantis records were confirmed in 29, 37 and 49 days. The opening price of 35 sits between the two counts.
The case for speed is that Zurich is the Diamond League final, with the federation’s timing partner on site. A release covering the summer season is due at some point, and one release could carry both hurdles records together.
The question fails if the federation keeps its 2026 rhythm of one release every two to three months. It comes true only if the autumn release comes early and covers both records.
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