Karsten Warholm ran 45.95 to destroy his own world record and win gold in the men’s 400 meter hurdles at the Tokyo Olympics.
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In front of a mostly empty stadium on a hot afternoon in Tokyo, Norway’s Karsten Warholm broke the men’s 400-meter hurdle world record with a 45.95-second run to take .75 seconds off his own previous world record.
The race easily goes down as one of the best performances in history with six national records set.
U.S. Olympic Trials champion Rai Benjamin also got under Warholm’s previous mark of 46.70 to take silver in 46.17. Benjamin was widely considered the top contender to possibly upset Warholm after running 46.83 at the trials and taking silver at the 2019 world championships in Doha.
Benjamin and Warholm did not race each other all year until the Olympic semifinal, where they just coasted and saved their best for the final round.
Warholm has not lost a 400m hurdles race since September 8, 2018 and it wouldn’t happen on Tuesday morning in Tokyo.
Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos finished third in 46.72 for silver, which dipped under Kevin Young’s previous world record of 46.78 that stood from 1992 until Warholm beat it in Oslo on July 1.
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