TOKYO. Norwegian athlete Karsten Warholm won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in the 400 m hurdles in a world record of 45.94 seconds.
He was the first in history to run under 46 seconds. The silver belongs to the American Rai Benjamin and the bronze travels to Brazil thanks to Alison dos Santos.
The two-time world champion started in the sixth track with lightning speed.
The American rival caught up with him, but the 25-year-old Norwegian had more strength at the end and improved his own world record by 76 hundredths, which ran only on July 1 in Oslo (46.70 s).
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Benjamin would have beaten him by more than half a second, but in addition to Warholm, his great performance was enough “only” for silver in the historical race.
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“It’s a result from another planet. I don’t know if something happened to the timekeeper, but of course I’m kidding. An incredible world record. Another limit to human possibilities has been surpassed,” said athletic commentator Alfons Juck.
In a broadcast, RTVS admitted that Warholm was expected to break both the world and Olympic records. However, the way he did it is unprecedented.
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“He had a clear lead, he handled all the obstacles excellently without hesitation and is a role model for all opponents in combining speed, endurance, technique and rhythm. All this gives together an amazing, even cosmic time,” added Juck.
Warholm triumphed at the 2017 World Cup and 2019, is also the European Champion of 2018 and has now added Olympic gold in the best time in history.
“It’s crazy. I’ve been training like crazy and devoting all my time to this goal. I have to set new goals because that’s not all for me. But this triumph is exceptional,” Warholm was quoted as saying by the DPA.
Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020/2021
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