Karsten Warholm rebounded from a two-month training camp in the form of his life at the Silesia Diamond League, a timely showing that comes just weeks ahead of the world championships in Tokyo.
The Norwegian stormed the 400m hurdles in Saturday’s meet in the Polish city of Chorzow in an astonishing 46.28 seconds.
It was the third fastest time ever run over the distance, topped only by Warholm’s own world record of 45.94sec and American Rai Benjamin’s 46.19sec.
Both of those times were set when the Norwegian won an iconic gold ahead of the American at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Until Warholm broke the world record in that run, nobody had run the 400m hurdles faster than American Kevin Young in three decades.
Four years on, Young’s once unbeatable 46.78 is only the 24th-fastest time in history.
In the years since, Warholm, Benjamin and Brazilian Alison Dos Santos have proceeded to redefine the gruelling event.
Warholm now owns nine of the top 23 times faster than Young’s 1992 best.
Benjamin, who succeded Warholm as Olympic champion at last year’s Paris Games, also has nine and 2022 world gold medallist Dos Santos five.
Training, Warholm added, had been based on building speed and consistency over the last 100 metres.
“Now I think we built the best version of myself,” he said in broadside to Benjamin and Dos Santos ahead of the Diamond League finals later this month in Zurich, swiftly followed by the Tokyo worlds.
“It’s all a part of the plan. And I think people should never count us out.
“I think we were very smart, me and my coach, and we always have plans, so I’m not as surprised by this time as everybody else.”
Warholm will travel from Zurich straight to Japan for a final training camp there.
“I feel like we have a really good plan now, but my target now is that I’ve trained a lot, so I’m really confident that we did the work, and now it’s just to build the shape towards Tokyo,” he said. “To me this was a very good start to the second half of
my season. I think it is promising towards Tokyo.”
