By: Eric Tian

Tobi Amusan of Nigeria set a world record in the women’s 100-meter hurdles on Sunday at the World Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon. The fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and eighth-placed runners in Amusan’s heat, a semifinal, also ran their best times ever. The other three runners ran their best times of the year.

Amusan’s time of 12.12 seconds broke the old record of 12.20, held by Kendra Harrison of the US since 2016, by 0.08 of a- a huge drop in an event. The four most recent world records in the event, for example, broke the previous marks by 0.01, 0.04, 0.01 and 0.03 seconds.

The confluence of fleet times made some wonder if something was wrong with the timing system or even with the wind gauge, which when the race began showed a tail wind of 0.924 meters per second, well within the legal limit of 2.0.

The 200- and 400-meter legend Michael Johnson, who is now working the worlds as a BBC television commentator, led the charge of doubt over the times, which the meet’s own social media accounts labeled, apparently unironically, “unbelievable.” “I don’t believe 100h times are correct,” he wrote on Twitter. “World record broken by .08! 12 PBs set. 5 National records set.”

Amusan’s time was unusually fast for her because she improved her time by 0.28 seconds in such a short race.