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Karsten Warholm’s run into the athletics and Olympic pantheon only highlighted that the sometimes overlooked 400 metres hurdles is right up there with the blue riband sprints.
“We are going into a new stratosphere,” silver medallist Rai Benjamin of the US said. “I would say this is the best race ever in the Olympics. I don’t think anything can compare to it. It is undeniable, it was insane.” Norwegian Warholm ran 45.94 seconds to smash the world record as he clinched his first Olympic gold.
Former British 110m hurdler Colin Jackson told the BBC: “When you talk about world records, this is up there with Usain Bolt’s time of 9.58 seconds in the 100m and up there with Flo Jo’s 10.49 seconds in the 100m.”
Tuesday’s Olympic final for the ages in Tokyo is arguably the biggest hour the discipline has seen but the one-lap race with 10 hurdles to cross has always produced extraordinary results and characters over the decades.
Briton David Hemery made the most of the altitude and thin air of Mexico City to smash the world record by seven-tenths and win 1968 gold by almost a second with 48.1 seconds.
Graceful Ugandan John Akii-Bua won 1972 gold in world record time, before American Edwin Moses went unbeaten in 122 races between 1975 and 1987, lowered the record four times, won two world titles and Olympic golds each in a years-long duel with compatriot Danny Harris and German Harald Schmid.
American Kevin Young then set the benchmark of 46.78 seconds for Barcelona 1992 gold, a world record that survived 29 years as other top athletes like two-time world and Olympic champion Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic came and went.
Enter Warholm, who came somewhat out of nowhere to get the 2017 world gold but not only made headlines by sporting a Viking hat after big wins but also with his fast times.
With sprint icon Usain Bolt already retired, the 400m hurdles were already thrown into the spotlight at the 2019 worlds in Qatar after Warholm, American Benjamin and home hope Abderrahman Samba had dipped below 47 seconds in the run-up.
Warholm coasted to back-to-back titles but Young’s world record survived - until this year.
Benjamin moved with five-hundredths of the world record before Warholm finally made it, clocking 46.70 seconds in front of a delighted Oslo home crowd on July 1.
But that was only the appetizer for Tuesday.
Once the dust settled, Warholm had smashed the world record by .76 with 45.94 seconds, Benjamin just missed out on 46.17 and Brazilian Alison dos Santos stayed just two-hundredths over the old record on 46.72.
The time of 47.08 from Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands put him eighth all-time and would have been good enough for gold at all Games between 1996 and 2016 - but he didn’t even medal on the day in fourth.
“I never thought in my wildest imagination that this would be possible,” Warholm said, adding that his rivals were motivating him to improve because “I don’t want to lose. I hate it.”
Warholm improved the world record by a bigger margin in one race than Moses, Young and Warholm in 44 years between 1977 and July.
“We have just seen one of the greatest athletic performances in the history of this sport,” former British long jumper Greg Rutherford said on Eurosport.
In Norway, their was immense pride and Warholm’s achievement was ranked at least on a par with the achievements of their winter sports stars.
“It may well be one of Norway’s biggest,” the VG paper quoted Olympic 800m gold medallist Vebjorn Rodal as saying, with former distance running great Ingrid Kristiansen adding: “I think it is one of Norway’s biggest, regardless of sport.”Tuesday’s Olympic final for the ages in Tokyo is arguably the biggest hour the discipline has seen but the one-lap race with 10 hurdles to cross has always produced extraordinary results and characters over the decades.
“We are going into a new stratosphere,” silver medallist Rai Benjamin of the US said. “I would say this is the best race ever in the Olympics. I don’t think anything can compare to it. It is undeniable, it was insane.” Norwegian Warholm ran 45.94 seconds to smash the world record as he clinched his first Olympic gold.
Former British 110m hurdler Colin Jackson told the BBC: “When you talk about world records, this is up there with Usain Bolt’s time of 9.58 seconds in the 100m and up there with Flo Jo’s 10.49 seconds in the 100m.”
Tuesday’s Olympic final for the ages in Tokyo is arguably the biggest hour the discipline has seen but the one-lap race with 10 hurdles to cross has always produced extraordinary results and characters over the decades.
Briton David Hemery made the most of the altitude and thin air of Mexico City to smash the world record by seven-tenths and win 1968 gold by almost a second with 48.1 seconds.
Graceful Ugandan John Akii-Bua won 1972 gold in world record time, before American Edwin Moses went unbeaten in 122 races between 1975 and 1987, lowered the record four times, won two world titles and Olympic golds each in a years-long duel with compatriot Danny Harris and German Harald Schmid.
American Kevin Young then set the benchmark of 46.78 seconds for Barcelona 1992 gold, a world record that survived 29 years as other top athletes like two-time world and Olympic champion Felix Sanchez of the Dominican Republic came and went.
Enter Warholm, who came somewhat out of nowhere to get the 2017 world gold but not only made headlines by sporting a Viking hat after big wins but also with his fast times.
With sprint icon Usain Bolt already retired, the 400m hurdles were already thrown into the spotlight at the 2019 worlds in Qatar after Warholm, American Benjamin and home hope Abderrahman Samba had dipped below 47 seconds in the run-up.
Warholm coasted to back-to-back titles but Young’s world record survived - until this year.
Benjamin moved with five-hundredths of the world record before Warholm finally made it, clocking 46.70 seconds in front of a delighted Oslo home crowd on July 1.
But that was only the appetizer for Tuesday.
Once the dust settled, Warholm had smashed the world record by .76 with 45.94 seconds, Benjamin just missed out on 46.17 and Brazilian Alison dos Santos stayed just two-hundredths over the old record on 46.72.
The time of 47.08 from Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands put him eighth all-time and would have been good enough for gold at all Games between 1996 and 2016 - but he didn’t even medal on the day in fourth.
“I never thought in my wildest imagination that this would be possible,” Warholm said, adding that his rivals were motivating him to improve because “I don’t want to lose. I hate it.”
Warholm improved the world record by a bigger margin in one race than Moses, Young and Warholm in 44 years between 1977 and July.
“We have just seen one of the greatest athletic performances in the history of this sport,” former British long jumper Greg Rutherford said on Eurosport.
In Norway, their was immense pride and Warholm’s achievement was ranked at least on a par with the achievements of their winter sports stars.
“It may well be one of Norway’s biggest,” the VG paper quoted Olympic 800m gold medallist Vebjorn Rodal as saying, with former distance running great Ingrid Kristiansen adding: “I think it is one of Norway’s biggest, regardless of sport.”Tuesday’s Olympic final for the ages in Tokyo is arguably the biggest hour the discipline has seen but the one-lap race with 10 hurdles to cross has always produced extraordinary results and characters over the decades.
