It began the manner in which his races regularly do – a slap of the chest, a pump of the fist, and a roar to the camera – however finished like none have done previously.
As Karsten Warholm crossed the end line of the men’s Olympic 400-meter hurdles last and registered the numbers on the stadium clock, his face went to a combination of exhaustion, elation and disbelief.
The Norwegian’s season of 45.94 seconds in Tokyo on Tuesday is probably going to move view of what is conceivable in this event as he held off the USA’s Rai Benjamin and broken his own reality record by the greater half a second.
In a golden era for the men’s 400m hurdles, this was the Olympic last the occasion merited. Benjamin’s season of 46.17 seconds for silver would have serenely broken the past record Warholm had set in July, while Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos’ bronze-medal time of 46.72 was right external it.
“That was the best race in Olympic history … everyone in this event should be getting paid big bucks, in all honesty,” Benjamin later quipped.
The forerunner in this occasion since his world championship title in 2017, Warholm presently has an Olympic decoration to show for his endeavors. He crawled in front of Benjamin after the last obstacle and tore an immense opening down the center of his run suit subsequent to going too far.
“The lactic acid is just crazy, I couldn’t feel my legs,” Warholm told reporters about the end of the race.
“I was just running over the line because I didn’t take anything for granted today. All respect to Rai for running 46.17 — that’s just crazy.”
Running in lane six, Warholm immediately found Dos Santos and Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba in the paths outside him.
He was leading by the 200-meter mark, however the race was a long way from won as Benjamin gradually made strides in the adjacent inside path.
The pair were basically level at the final hurdle, however Warholm brought an additional ounce of energy to take the gold.
“I ran sort of scared, but that’s something that I always do,” Warholm added. “I knew that with my fast opening, I was up on the side of dos Santos and Samba really early in the race.
“That was my tactic today, I think I won on tactics. I really went out hard and tried to get the guys with me … after that I just ran for my life. I would have died for that gold medal.”
Kevin Young’s 400m hurdles world record from the 1992 Olympics had represented almost thirty years before Warholm broke it a month prior – a barrier the 25-year-old has recently compared to the competition to get a man on the moon.
However, this Olympic last has re-imagined the discipline.
The three athletes on the platform can make a case for being the quickest 400m hurdlers ever; Samba, the fifth-quickest on the record-breaking list behind Young, completed fifth behind the British Virgin Islands’ Kyron McMaster in the last.
Fast track, fast times?
For silver medalist Benjamin, there was a combination of frustration and pride.
“It’s a lot to process,” he told reporters. “I cried a little bit … but I am really happy to be a part of history like this and just to show where this event can go.
“I don’t think even Usain Bolt’s 9.58 (at the World Championships in Berlin) topped that. I mean, three guys pretty much broke the world record.”
The Tokyo Olympics have so far yielded fast times on the track, quite Elaine Thompson-Herah’s Olympic record in the ladies’ 100m final.
Some have put it down to advancements in shoe technology, while others have credited the great track surface.
“It feels like I’m walking on clouds,” said US sprinter Ronnie Baker. “It’s really smooth out there. It’s a beautiful track, one of the nicest I’ve run on.”
Accoring to World Athletics and Mondo, the organization that pre-arranged the track in front of the Games, in excess of 280 world records had been set up on Mondo tracks preceding the Tokyo Olympics.
Notwithstanding, Benjamin said that, in his race at any rate, the quick occasions were more about the athletes themselves.
“People say it’s the track, it’s the shoes. I would wear different shoes and still run fast, it doesn’t really matter,” he said.
“There’s some efficiency in the shoe, don’t get me wrong, and it’s nice to have a good track. But no one in history’s going to go out there and do what we did just now, ever. I don’t care who you are.”
Mihambo’s golden jump
Before the theatrics of the men’s 400m hurdles, Germany’s Malaika Mihambo conveyed show in the women’s long jump when she asserted the gold decoration with her last jump of seven meters.
It put her in front of the USA’s Brittney Reese and Nigeria’s Ese Brume, neither of whom could go past the seven-meter mark with their last leaps and took silver and bronze individually.
“I feel overwhelmed. It was, I think, the most exciting women’s long jump competition in history,” said Mihambo.
“It was so exciting to be part of and I am happy I made it at the end.
“I knew that I could jump farther than 6.95m. I just needed to hit the board. I knew all the time that I could do it. I just knew that I had one last attempt to do it and I am so happy to grab the gold.”
Those two gold medals to Norway and Germany in the Tuesday morning session imply that the initial 15 golds handed in track and field events at the Tokyo Olympics have gone to competitors from 15 unique nations.
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