 Harrison in 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nickname | Keni Harrison | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1992-09-18)September 18, 1992 (age 33) Tennessee, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home town | Clayton, North Carolina, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 4 in (163 cm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Track and field | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event(s) | 100 meters hurdles,60 meters hurdles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | Kentucky | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team | Adidas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coached by | Edrick Floréal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personalbests |
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Medal record
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Kendra"Keni" Harrison (born September 18, 1992) is an Americanhurdler. Harrison held theworld record in the women's100 metres hurdles with a time of 12.20 seconds, set on July 22, 2016 at theLondon Müller Anniversary Games, breaking the previous world record of 12.21 seconds achieved nearly 28 years earlier by Bulgarian athleteYordanka Donkova.
In college, she competed for theUniversity of Kentucky Wildcats and in 2015 she wonNCAA championship titles bothindoors andoutdoors. She was runner-up in the 100 m hurdles at the2015 USA Outdoor Championships; at the2016 Olympic Trials she placed sixth because she tripped, and missed qualifying for the Olympics. Between the US trials and the Olympic Games, she broke the 28 year-old world record. Harrison won the 60 m hurdles at the2018 World Indoor Championship and the 100 m hurdles at the2018 NACAC Championships. She placed second in the 100 m hurdles at the2019 World Championship, and at the2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.
Kendra Harrison was born inTennessee on September 18, 1992, andadopted by Gary and Karon Harrison; she grew up in a large family with ten other children, eight of them also adopted.[1][2][3] Harrison's first sport wassoccer; she took up track and field atClayton High School inClayton, North Carolina.[3] She soon became a leading scholastic hurdler, winning state championship titles at the 2010 and 2011North Carolina Class 4A state meets; in 2011 she also won the 100 m hurdles at the New Balance Nationals and was namedGatorade North Carolina Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year.[4]
After graduating from Clayton High in 2011 Harrison went toClemson University; as afreshman in 2012 she wasAtlantic Coast Conference champion in the400 m hurdles and the4 × 400 m relay and qualified for theNCAA championships in both hurdles races.[5] She competed in the2012 Olympic Trials in the 100 m hurdles but was eliminated in the heats.[5] In 2013, she placed fifth in the 100 m hurdles (12.88) and fourth in the 400 m hurdles (55.75) at theNCAA outdoor championships.[5][6]
Harrison transferred from Clemson to theUniversity of Kentucky after the 2013 season, together with sprinterDezerea Bryant and coach Tim Hall.[3] She continued to develop, winning both the 100 m hurdles (12.86) and the 400 m hurdles (54.76) at the 2014Southeastern Conference (SEC) championships; she was the first athlete to win both events since 1999.[3] She entered theNCAA outdoor championships as the leading favorite and collegiate leader in the 400 m hurdles, but failed to match her personal best and lost to Texas A&M'sShamier Little; in the 100 m hurdles she placed fifth for the second consecutive year.[3][5][7]
Harrison injured herhamstring in the winter of 2014–15 and missed the early part of the 2015 indoor season.[8] She returned in time to win the60 m hurdles at the SEC and NCAA indoor championships, setting personal bests in both meets; her time in theNCAA meet (7.87 seconds) ranked her fourth in the world that indoor season.[5] Harrison also won her first outdoor NCAA title in 2015, winning the 100 m hurdles in 12.55; in the 400 m hurdles she placed second to Little in a personal best 54.09, at that point the second-fastest in the world that year.[5][9]
In November 2015, Harrison was named as a 2016 recipient of the NCAA'sToday's Top 10 Award, presented annually to 10 individuals who completed their athletic eligibility in the previous school year "for successes on the field, in the classroom and in the community."[10]
Following her graduation, University of Kentucky coachEdrick Floréal continued to train her.[11] At the2015 United States championships, which doubled as trials for theWorld Championships inBeijing, Harrison decided to concentrate on the 100 m hurdles only; she set a personal all-conditions best of 12.46w in the heats and ran a wind-legal 12.56 in the final, placing a close second to 2008 Olympic ChampionDawn Harper-Nelson and qualifying for the American team.[9] The Americans were heavy favorites for the world championships, but underperformed; Harrison had afalse start in the semi-finals and was disqualified.[12]
Harrison opened her 2016 indoor season winning the60 metres hurdles inLexington, Kentucky,Karlsruhe, Germany andGlasgow in 7.92.[13] In a tightly competed race at the2016 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships, Harrison took second place by one hundredth of a second toBrianna Rollins, setting a personal record of 7.77 seconds and moving herself into 13th place on the all-time lists.[14] At the2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships one week later, Harrison led the qualifying with 7.81 seconds. However, in the final she hit the first hurdle heavily and never recovered, ending in eighth whileNia Ali (the least favoured American) took the title.[15][16]
She began the outdoor season in April with the fastest opener recorded by a hurdler, 12.36 seconds, to go up to ninth on the all-time lists.[17] A run of 12.42 followed at the start of May. Then at thePrefontaine Classic in late May she perfectly cleared all the hurdles and won in a time of 12.24 seconds – the second fastest time in history afterYordanka Donkova's world record of 12.21 from 1988.[18] She was favored to win the 100 m hurdles at the2016 United States Olympic Trials in early July, but only placed sixth in 12.62 and missed qualifying for the2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro; the three spots on the American Olympic team went to Rollins,Kristi Castlin and Ali.[19]
Harrison broke the 100 m hurdles world record on July 22, 2016 at theLondon Müller Anniversary Games, running 12.20 (+0.3 m/s) to lower Donkova's mark by one one-hundredth of a second; Rollins, Castlin and Ali placed second, third and fourth in the race.[20][21] The trackside clock in the record race initially stopped at 12.58, the unadjusted time of runner-up Rollins, as Harrison ducked under the timing beam at the finish line.[22]
In 2021, Harrison finally qualified for her first Olympics. On August 2, 2021, she won the silver medal in the 100 meter hurdles at the2020 Tokyo Games.[23]
| Grand Slam Track results[24] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slam | Race group | Event | Pl. | Time | Prize money |
| 2025 Miami Slam | Short hurdles | 100 m hurdles | 4th | 12.40 | US$20,000 |
| 100 m | 3rd | 11.35 | |||
| Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | World Championships | Beijing, China | – (sf) | 100 m hurdles | DQ |
| 2016 | World Indoor Championships | Portland, United States | 8th | 60 m hurdles | 8.87 |
| 2017 | World Championships | London, United Kingdom | 4th | 100 m hurdles | 12.74 |
| 2018 | World Indoor Championships | Birmingham, United Kingdom | 1st | 60 m hurdles | 7.70 |
| NACAC Championships | Toronto, Canada | 1st | 100 m hurdles | 12.55 | |
| IAAF Continental Cup | Ostrava, Czech Republic | 2nd | 100 m hurdles | 12.52 | |
| 2019 | World Championships | Doha, Qatar | 2nd | 100 m hurdles | 12.46 |
| 2021 | Olympic Games | Tokyo, Japan | 2nd | 100 m hurdles | 12.52 |
| 2022 | World Championships | Eugene, OR, United States | 2nd (sf) | 100 m hurdles | 12.271 |
| 2023 | World Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 3rd | 100 m hurdles | 12.46 |
1Disqualified in the final
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Women's 100 m hurdles world record holder July 22, 2016 – July 24, 2022 | Succeeded by |
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