There were Bob Beamon’s 8.90 meters in the long jump, Sergei Bubka’s 6 meters in the pole vault and Usain Bolt’s 9 seconds and 58 hundredths in the 100 meters. There will now be Karsten Warholm’s 45 seconds and 94 hundredths in the 400-meter hurdles event.
On Tuesday August 3, just before 12:21 p.m. in Tokyo – an odd schedule for one of the Games’ most anticipated athletics finals – the Norwegian entered the annals of his sport by becoming the first man under 46 seconds on the lap with obstacles. He is his country’s first Olympic champion in athletics since 1956.
“Dude, this is crazy. This is by far the biggest moment of my life, he replied to a reporter after the race. It’s an obsession. I fall asleep every night thinking about it. “
“In another dimension”
The new 25-year-old Olympic champion had already broken for the first time, a month ago, in Oslo, this world record held by the American Kevin Young since the Barcelona Games in 1992: 46 seconds and 70 hundredths, against 46 seconds and 78 hundredths.
“I had that special feeling in my chest, you know, like when you’re nervous. It was something I felt when I was six, said Warholm. I hadn’t felt it since, but yesterday it had come back. “
By lowering this time by just over three-quarters of a second, Karsten Warholm has reached extraordinary limits. “I’m knocked out standing, he’s in another dimension. It’s stronger than 9 seconds 58 hundredths [de Bolt]“, reacted, live, the consultant of the Eurosport television channel, and ex-hurdler, Stéphane Caristan. Joined by silver medalist himself, American Rai Benjamin: “It was the biggest race in the history of the Olympic Games. I even think Bolt’s 9 seconds 58 [réalisés lors des Mondiaux 2009] cannot compete. “
Kevin Young himself had announced the color in an interview with the team published before this exploit: ” I’m told I’m crazy when I say he can bring the world record down under 46 seconds, but look at the numbers closely. “
In 1991, during the athletics worlds, the stadium of the Japanese capital had already been the scene of a battle at the top between the Americans Carl Lewis and Mike Powell, the latter seizing the world record for the long jump. with a mark at 8.95 meters.
He would be French champion in … 400 m on the flat
With this exceptional performance, Warholm would have been champion of France in 2021 in a virtual 400m flat, competing with hurdles, and the others… without. Gilles Biron won, on June 28, in 45 seconds and 99 hundredths, or 5 hundredths more than the new world record in the 400m hurdles.
To add further to the indescribable, this Tuesday, his Tokyo runner-up, Rai Benjamin, ran in 46 seconds and 17 hundredths, 53 hundredths better than the old world record. And bronze medalist Alison Dos Santos of Brazil clocked 46 seconds and 72 hundredths.
Breaking the world record and still failing to win, the blow is hard for Rai Benjamin. “It’s hard, it hurts but that’s how it is, the American explained of his tears after the race. If someone had told me that I would get 46 seconds 17 hundredths in the final and still lose the race, I think I would have hit them and thrown them out of my room. “
Since 2018, Warholm and Benjamin have responded to each other with chronometric performances: the duo have captured thirteen of the twenty best times in history. The balance tilts clearly for the world record holder: nine against four. The Norwegian with a fiery reputation did not fail to gently mock his best enemy, who regretted having made a mistake at the fourth hurdle: “Big respect for him, and if this mistake cost him gold, he shouldn’t have made it at the Games. “
In Rio, five years ago, the young Norwegian – then 20 years old – was eliminated in the semifinals of his first Olympics in more than 48 seconds. The following year, he had become, to everyone’s surprise, world champion in London, in a very reasonable time (48 seconds 34 hundredths). In the fall of 2019, he did it again in Doha, beating his rival Benjamin in 47 seconds and 42 hundredths. That year, he went under 47 seconds for the first time at the Zurich meeting.
“It’s just too big. It’s almost like writing history here. I knew this race would be the hardest of my life, but I was ready. ” Maybe Karsten Wharholm was ready. But not the stopwatch.