No world record but Warholm shows ominous early season hurdles form
XIAMEN, China - Norwegian hurdling great Karsten Warholm surprised even himself with how good he felt in his first run-out of the season at the Xiamen Diamond League on Saturday.
The 29-year-old was all smiles after taking two tenths of a second off his own world best time by clocking 33.05 seconds to win the rarely-run 300 metres hurdles.
"I was a little bit surprised over how easy my legs were feeling out of the last bend," Warholm said at Egret Stadium.
"Of course, you feel it a little bit in the end, but after the last hurdle I managed to really push in the last 45 metres. I'm pretty happy."
Warholm set his previous world mark of 33.26 in 2021 a month before claiming the 400m world record, which he again improved a few weeks later to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
"That's the level I am pushing for and that is where I want to be," he said of the chase for world records.
"So this at least shows that the speed over the hurdles is there ... I knew it was in my body to perform that, but you obviously have to do it."
His time will not yet count as a world record. Although World Athletics gave the 300m hurdles official recognition last month, it is waiting to see how popular it is before granting it full status.
Warholm might be able to help with that. He plans to run the distance again in the fifth leg of the Diamond League circuit on home soil at the Bislett Games in Oslo in June.
"If we're running again in Bislett and all the guys will be there, we'll push it under the 33-second line, I'm pretty sure," he said.
The "guys" are the other two fastest men of all time in the 400m hurdles behind the Norwegian - American Rai Benjamin, who took Warholm's Olympic title off him in Paris last year, and Brazilian Alison dos Santos, who won the 2022 world title.
Warholm finished seventh in that world championships final in Oregon after an injury-plagued season, but won the title back the following year in Budapest.
Also champion in 2017 and 2019, Warholm will be gunning for an unprecedented fourth world title when he returns to Tokyo's National Stadium in September for the world championships.
"I'm looking to win as much as I can and improve my level as much as possible. That is the only goal all the time," Warholm said of his goals for the season.
"And I am hungry for more gold medals, believe it or not," he said with a grin. REUTERS
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