Piu wins Diamond League Season Champion title

Alison dos Santos, 22, Piu, won this Thursday (8), in Zurich, Switzerland, the title of champion of the season in the 400 m hurdles of the Diamond League. This is the main competition circuit of World Athletics, the former International Association of Athletics Federations.

The feat is historic and also unprecedented for men’s athletics in the country. Until then, Brazil had only won the trophy among women, with Fabiana Murer, in 2010 and 2014, in the pole vault.

He won the race with a time of 46s98, beating Americans Khallifah Rosser, second with 47s76, and CJ Allen, third with 48s21.

It was the third time in the year that Piu ran below the 47-second mark. The competition had 12 qualifying stages until the final, where the best eight of the season competed.

Piu reached the decision by winning six disputed stages: in Doha, Qatar, in Eugene, in the United States, in Oslo, Norway, in Stockholm, Sweden, in Silesia, Poland, and the most recent in Brussels, Belgium. , on the 2nd of September.

“This year, after the Olympics, we knew it would be leaner, but we wouldn’t have any rest. There was the World Cup, next year there will also be, and in 2024, the Games in Paris. Our goal is Paris-2024. But there is no way to finish the race without running the entire distance. We are on the track, in the middle, running and focusing on the front”, said the athlete, shortly after the achievement.

World champion in Oregon, with a time of 46.29 seconds, the third best in history, and a bronze medalist at the Tokyo Games, the athlete managed to evolve throughout the season.

“After the Tokyo Games, we met with our biomechanic, Franklin Camargo, to identify where we could improve, as we knew we had to adjust and experiment with a different racing model to get more competitive in Paris,” explained coach Felipe de Siqueira.

First Brazilian to run under 48 seconds, surpassing the national record of Eronilde Araújo, of 48s04, in 1995, in addition to the continental record, obtained by the Panamanian Bayano Al Kamani, of 47s84, in 2005, Alison got used to contradicting negative expectations.

When he was just ten months old, living at his grandparents’ house, he overturned a pan of hot oil, used to fry fish.

He spent almost four months in the Barretos Cancer Hospital and still bears marks, the main one on his head.

Born in São Joaquim da Barra (460 km from São Paulo), he told Sheet having adapted training for the dream of reaching the summit in Tokyo.

At the time, with restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, he took washers, bars and later found a cement street, without a lot of car traffic, for small races.

When he returned to São Paulo, he started to run near the Obelisco and in Ibirapuera Park.

Tweety “with u”, as he likes to point out, is the nickname he carries since his arrival in athletics. He came to be called that because of his physical resemblance to another boy from a social project in the city, known as Piu.

He even practiced judo and kung fu as a child, and accepted to start in athletics encouraged by a friend.

Obsessed with improvement, he constantly studies evidence from athletes such as Americans Edwin Moses, two-time Olympic champion in 1976 and 1984, and Kevin Young, gold medalist in Barcelona-1992 and world record holder to this day.

Before returning to Brazil, Alison will complete next Monday (12), at Gala dei Castelli, in Belinzona, Switzerland, in evidence for the silver series of the Continental Tour of World Athletics.

Besides him, three other Brazilians also qualified for the Diamond League final: Thiago Braz, in the pole vault, Rafael Pereira, in the 110 m hurdles, and Almir Júnior, in the triple jump. They finished in sixth, ninth and fifth places respectively.