Harrison looks to add to legacy by running under 12.30 seconds in 100-meter hurdles for third straight year

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Keni Harrison isn’t just focused on clearing 10 barriers, the reigning U.S. national champion remains motivated to take her hurdling to even greater heights.

Having already won her first IAAF World Indoor title in the 60-meter hurdles in March, Harrison has two opportunities to make additional history this year in the 100-meter hurdles, beginning Friday at the Diamond League final in Brussels, Belgium.

Harrison, who set the world record of 12.20 seconds in July 2016, is attempting to join fellow American Dawn Harper-Nelson as the only athletes to win multiple Diamond League titles in the 100 hurdles. Harper-Nelson, who won four Diamond League crowns in a row from 2012-15, is also scheduled to race Friday and has announced her retirement at the end of the season.

Harrison, who has 12 career Diamond League race victories, captured the overall title in 2016 and is looking to secure another championship after not competing in last year’s final. She has won 10 of 12 races in the 100 hurdles this season and placed top three in the other two.

“From the perspective of her confidence, she knows what’s important this year and she knows why we’re doing what we’re doing, so if she loses a race along the way, it’s not as big of a deal as it’s been in the past. The maturity and growth have been enormous,” said Texas coach Edrick Floréal, who has continued to coach Harrison as a professional following her collegiate career at Kentucky.

“She’s lost a couple of races and in the past, typically if that happens, it’s been the end of the world. But this year it’s like, ‘I don’t really care because I know what I’ve got to do this year.’ The most important thing is the Diamond League final.”

Harrison, who captured the gold medal Aug. 11 at the North American Central American and Caribbean (NACAC) Championships in Toronto in her last race before Brussels, is also scheduled to compete Sept. 8 for the Americas at the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava, Czech Republic.

Including Friday, that gives Harrison two chances to add to her legacy as one of the sport’s elite performers.

Harrison, the world leader at 12.36 from July 22 in London, is looking to become the first female hurdler in history to run under 12.30 in three consecutive years. After setting the world record in 2016, Harrison clocked 12.28 in Hungary last year.

“The consistency is good and it’s really important to me. It’s a lot harder to make a fast athlete faster, so he’s very technical and those are the small things that I have to work on to try to drop my time,” Harrison said. “I trust coach Flo and I know he knows exactly what he’s doing. To get the world lead in London, that just shows he knows what he’s talking about and he’s getting my body to peak when it needs to peak.”

Bulgaria’s Yordanka Donkova, No. 2 all-time at 12.21, produced sub-12.30 performances in 1986 and 1988. Sweden’s Ludmila Engquist, equal to the No. 4 performer in history at 12.26, achieved sub-12.30 efforts in 1991 and 1992.

Bulgaria’s Ginka Zagorcheva, Australia’s Sally Pearson and American Brianna McNeal have all achieved the sub-12.30 feat once. McNeal ranks second in the world this year at 12.38 from June 10 in Sweden, but hasn’t raced since London.

Harrison has prevailed in three of four head-to-head meetings with McNeal this season, pulling away from the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the final stretch of their Muller Anniversary Games showdown five weeks ago.

“I liked the last three hurdles. That’s something she hasn’t been able to do is separate from a world-class field that late. It’s a battle of attrition and you’re dying, and each hurdle you get worse and worse, but to make that big of a gap running from hurdles Nos. eight to 10, it was like, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’” Floréal said. “I don’t think I’ve done a great job this year of getting her sharp, but I also didn’t want to until now.”

Although she ran a wind-aided 12.37 at the Drake Relays in Iowa in April and returned to Des Moines in June to repeat as U.S. national champion by clocking a wind-legal 12.46, Harrison also had several summer performances that tested her patience as she continued to prepare for the end of the season.

“When I run 12.5 and I’ve done that multiple times this year, I feel like I can run 12.5 with my eyes closed. I know for a fact no matter if I’m in shape or out of shape, 12.5 is something I’m able to do naturally,” Harrison said. “It was kind of frustrating a little bit to keep running that time, but then to run 12.4 at USAs, it was like, ‘OK, now we’re getting back to the old Keni Harrison,’ and then to run 12.3 in London, it was like, ‘Keep trusting your coach, he knows exactly what he’s doing and don’t listen to what other people have to say because a lot of people kept saying, she’s not running as fast.’ But you can’t listen to the outside, just listen to your coach and focus on what you need to do.”

Although Harrison benefits from running multiple rounds, as evidenced by the consistency demonstrated in Birmingham to run under 7.80 seconds in all three 60-meter hurdles races capped by a 7.70 in the final, Floreal knows she is mentally ready for the one-race scenarios in front of her in Brussels and Ostrava.

“World indoors was very important because she had to learn to win a global title and I was adamant that I have to do a better job as a coach to prepare her for rounds and distractions and press conferences and all the stuff that comes with being good,” Floréal said. “When she won, it was like, ‘OK, they can (stop talking) now, I can win the big one.’ And not just winning, but running the fastest first round, the fastest second round and the fastest final in World Indoor history, that was good for her to build that confidence for moments like this.

“This is a shot for her to get one step closer to the World Championships and the Olympics by getting in that mindset again.”

Harrison capped her dominant run to the 2016 overall Diamond League title by winning in Zurich. Although this season has been more about process and progression than performance and results, Harrison is prepared to chase history again in her final two races by adding to her global resume.

“I have to tell myself to have some technique, because when the track is so fast, I don’t really feel like I have to hurdle, if that makes sense. I can just rely on my speed and I know for a fact I’ll run fast, but I have to be able to have that technique with it,” Harrison said. “Sometimes I can get it right on and sometimes it takes a few reps, but I’m going to make sure I get it figured out. This year has been all about start off fast and end faster.”