Brazil’s Alison dos Santos vies for gold in US
Number one on the world ranking, Brazilian Alison dos Santos, also known as Piu, may become the world’s fastest athlete and win gold for the country in the 400-meter hurdles tonight.
Starting at 11:50 pm Brasília time, the 22-year-old from São Paulo and a bronze medalist at the Tokyo Olympics is facing the final of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Among his main opponents tonight are two-time world champion Karsten Warholm (Norway) and Rai Benjamin (USA)—gold and silver medalists in Tokyo respectively.
Since the beginning of this year’s season, Piu has racked up victories in five events, four of them in the Diamond League, the main circuit of the World Athletics Federation. In the last one of them, in Sweden back in June, Piu bagged gold by completing the race with the best time of the year: 46s80. His best mark is still 46s72, which earned him bronze in the Tokyo Games.
“I came to win a medal, but to win a medal you have to get to the final. Now I have to go through each stage and run fast enough to get where I want to go,” he told the Brazilian Olympic Committee.
It has been three years since Piu’s first experience in the world championships. He competed in the 400-meter hurdles in Doha (2019) and finished in seventh place.
The country has 13 medals in the competition. Brazil’s only gold was won in South Korea back in 2011 by Fabiana Murer in the pole vault.
