Nicholas Hough

Fast Facts

Sport: Athletics
Event: 110m hurdles
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Highlights: Bronze medal 2018 Commonwealth Games
Year Born: 1993
State Born: NSW

About Nick

A talented junior, Nick Hough emerged in Little Athletics and GPS school athletics competition for The Kings School. He was an all-rounder, competing in sprints, hurdles, jumps and the shot put. 

He made his international debut aged 16, at the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympic Games, winning gold in the 110m hurdles. In 2012, he competed at the IAAF World Junior Championships winning silver in the 110m hurdles. In 2013, while negotiating the graduation to the senior hurdle height, he ran his lifetime bests in the sprints (10.39/20.66), securing semi-final places at the World University Games. He then received a call-up to run on the national 4x100m relay at the World Championships. 

In 2014, he made significant progress in his preferred event, the 110m hurdles. Starting the season with a best of 13.98, he eventually took this to 13.57 for fourth in the final at the Commonwealth Games.  In 2015 he won the national title in a stunning 13.42 making him number two Australian all-time and was the fastest by an Australian for over 18 years. 

At the 2015 World Championships, he was run out in the heats and injury in 2016 made it difficult to qualify for Rio. In 2017 in Europe, he qualified for the London World Championships and was fifth in his heat. Two weeks later he competed at his third World University Games, where he placed sixth in the final.

In 2018 he was untroubled in winning his fourth national 110m hurdles title and in March competed at the IAAF World indoors in Birmingham and progressed to the semi-final just missing the national record running 7.76 in his heat. He was terrific at the Commonwealth Games claiming bronze in a PB 13.38. It was the fastest time by an Australian at the Commonwealth Games and first medal in the event for 32 years.

After winning his sixth National title in April 2021, Nick was selected on World Athletics ranking points to make his Olympic debut.

When COVID hit Sydney in July 2021, he was unable to travel to Queensland to complete his Tokyo preparations, but made do training in Sydney. 

The first Australian to compete in the 110m hurdles at the Olympics for 21 years, since Sydney 2000, he was terrific in Tokyo placing third in his heat running 13.57 to automatically qualify for the semi-finals. It was just the second Aussie in 37 years to progress that deep into the Games.
"I was happy with everything but the start. I haven't started against anyone for months, I've been caught in Sydney with lockdown, and it's been tougher than I would have liked to prepare for Tokyo," Hough said. 

In the semi-final he got out of the blocks well but clipped the first few hurdles and eventually seven of the 10 1.07m barriers, hampering him getting into his rhythm for his normal strong finish. 
He placed seventh in 13.88 seconds. He revealed afterwards a calf niggle from the heats hindered him. "I wanted to go quicker than yesterday but my body thought otherwise," he said.