Karsten Warholm’s fourth title no given in Tokyo hurdles showdown
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Norway's Karsten Warholm is seeking a fourth 400m world title.
PHOTO: REUTERS
SYDNEY – Karsten Warholm will be coming out with all guns blazing in his bid for a record-extending fourth 400m hurdles world title in Tokyo, but he will have his work cut out with two other generational talents in the field.
Between them, Olympic champion Rai Benjamin, 2022 world champion Alison dos Santos and Warholm hold the 24 fastest times ever in the event and the world championship final is primed to be a race for the ages.
The trio last faced off at the Stockholm Diamond League in June with American Benjamin winning in a then world-leading 46.54 seconds, edging out Brazilian dos Santos into second in 46.68sec with Norwegian Warholm third in 47.41sec.
“This speaks volumes to our event, we’re trading blows and that’s what people want to see,” said Benjamin, 28, who pipped Warholm to Olympic gold in Paris 2024 with dos Santos, 25, taking the bronze.
“We’re always going to push each other to run fast... every time we step on the track, you never know what’s going to happen. It could be anybody’s day.”
Warholm, 29, remains the only man to dip below 46 seconds after breaking his own world record with 45.94sec to win Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021 at the same National Stadium where the trio will face off on Sept 19.
He has been in strong form this season, after improving his own world best mark in the rarely run 300m hurdles in Oslo in June.
In the absence of his rivals, Warholm bettered Benjamin’s 400m hurdles time with a sizzling run of 46.28sec in Silesia in mid-August and took another meet record with a run of 46.70sec in Zurich in the Diamond League Finals.
“I was a little bit surprised that it was this good,” he said of his run in Poland, the third-fastest of all time.
“But still there is one thing to know that it is possible, and then there is one thing to go out and do it.
“Doing what I did is very promising going into Tokyo.”
All in their mid to late 20s, the trio come from very different backgrounds.
While Warholm hails from an isolated small town on the west coast of Norway, Benjamin grew up in the suburbs of New York.
Dos Santos took up sport in Sao Paulo to overcome a shyness which in part stemmed from the still visible scarring to his head and body – the result of a childhood accident with a pan of hot oil.
They are, however, notable for the friendliness of their intense rivalry, with dos Santos revealing in 2025 that there was always a “good luck” before they went out on the track. REUTERS
