'Back to the grind' - Masai Russell shares training update after USA Indoor Championships exploits
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Olympic champion Masai Russell

'Back to the grind' - Masai Russell shares training update after USA Indoor Championships exploits

Evans Ousuru 16:48 - 25.02.2025

Olympic champion Masai Russell expresses her excitement after revealing one unique feature in her training.

Paris Olympic 100m hurdles champion Masai Russell has taken pride to explain what she feels about her season so far.

The American maintained that she feels she is ahead of where she was at this stage last year.

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The 24-year-old's sentiments come after she claimed her first US indoor title, clocking 7.74s in the 60m hurdles to record the world's best time of 2025 last weekend.

In an X post, she reflected on her win  and said that her progress at the beginning of Olympic year was not as good as her results so far in 2025. "Started training a month later and I'm ahead of where I was at from last year...back to the grind. See y'all outdoors," Russell wrote.

Russell continued her undefeated 2025 season by winning a highly competitive race on February 22. Her world-leading time of 7.74 held off a close challenge from fellow Olympian Grace Stark (7.76). They were followed closely behind by Christina Clemons (7.81) who was the 2018 world indoor silver medallist in the event. Russell has stated she does not intend to compete in Nanjing next month.

Russell set the US NCAA record in 100m hurdles when she was a student athlete at the University of Kentucky. Her resume also includes a bronze medal in the 400mh at the Pan American U-20 Championships.

Following her Olympics glory, Russell clinched a podium finish at the women's only Athlos. Carrying on her momentum to 2025, she raced at the Tech Corky Classic for her first race of the season; achieving victories in the 60m and 60mh. As though this was not enough, she added more wins to her repertoire from the New Balance Grand Prix and the Millrose Games.

Russell holds personal bests of 12.25 seconds over 100m hurdles which is tied for the fifth of all time, 7.75 seconds over 60m hurdles, which is 13th of all time and 54.66 seconds over 400m hurdles.