(Source: World Athletics Federation)
Karsten Warholm gave the packed crowd at the 60th edition of the Bislett Games in Oslo the performance they craved in the latest Wanda Diamond League meeting as he set a 300m hurdles world best of 32.67, becoming the first athlete to better 33 seconds in this event.
It was the final event of a programme that had seen Mondo Duplantis set two meeting records in the men’s pole vault, Kenya’s Faith Cherotich set a women’s 3000m steeplechase meeting record and world lead of 9:02.60 and Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Isaac Nader and Nico Young earn stirring victories in, respectively, the men’s 800m, mile and 5000m.
Racing against the US athlete who succeeded him as Olympic 400m hurdles champion last year, Rai Benjamin, Warholm offered ominous evidence of his 2025 prospects. The 29-year-old Norwegian athlete improved significantly upon the time of 33.05 he set at the Diamond League meeting in Xiamen earlier this year.
Benjamin, two lanes inside his rival in lane five, appeared to have the race in his grasp as he moved past Warholm into the final straight, but he faltered over the final 50 metres as the home athlete drove home remorselessly.
Benjamin nevertheless clocked a personal best of 33.22 in second place ahead of Brazil’s 2022 world 400m hurdles champion Alison dos Santos, who recorded 33.38.
It was the first time that Warholm, Benjamin and Dos Santos had all met in this discipline; they now move on to the 400m hurdles at Sunday’s Diamond League meeting in Stockholm.
“The race went well although I was rather worried with how much Rai (Benjamin) was closing on me,” Warholm said. “But I knew I could push on over the last hurdle to home. I usually fade at the end of the 400 so the 300 suits me to some degree but I will be back strong in the 400 on Sunday.”
A few minutes earlier, Duplantis earned his customary victory in the men’s pole vault – taking his fifth Bislett Games title – before going on to set successive meeting records of 6.03m and 6.15m.
Sweden’s double Olympic champion, unbeaten since the 2023 Monaco Diamond League meeting, thus improved his outdoor world lead of 6.11m set at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting – having set his 11th world record earlier his year by clearing 6.27m indoors.
