A look back at the key moments of 2022 in the hurdles and steeplechase

2022 review: hurdles and steeplechase

Perhaps the best way to start, in telling the story of Alison Dos Santos, is with the words of the two men he deposed at the top of the 400m hurdles tree at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
Shortly after the 22-year-old Brazilian blitzed his rivals to win the 400m hurdles at Hayward Field, clocking the third fastest time in history with 46.29, Olympic champion Karsten Warholm and silver medallist Rai Benjamin were asked for their thoughts on the new king of this domain.
&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been huge,&rdquo; said Warholm, who faded to seventh place in 48.42, a mid-season hamstring tear leaving him short of peak fitness. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s been running and getting a lot of self-confidence and we can see it today. I know what it takes to be running that type of time and, even though I wanted it to be me, I&rsquo;m happy for him. It&rsquo;s his day.&rdquo;
Benjamin, who took silver in 46.89 &ndash; an astonishing performance given he missed several weeks&rsquo; training due to injuries and a severe bout of Covid-19 &ndash; said Dos Santos is &ldquo;carrying the event on his back right now,&rdquo; and the US star knows next year could produce major fireworks if all three are back at full capacity.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy he ran fast,&rdquo; said Benjamin. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re going to elevate the sport: 46.2 &ndash; (that&rsquo;s) one hell of a season. Next year is going to be pretty fast. Karsten is going to come back with a vengeance. I&rsquo;m going to take the necessary time to heal up, be strong, and be ready for a hell of a fight.&rdquo;
If his rivals were gracious in defeat, then Dos Santos was equally gracious in victory, noting how Warholm&rsquo;s time in Tokyo had shown him what was possible.
&ldquo;If he can run 45, me, Benjamin and other guys can too,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s dream of that day &ndash; and make it happen.&rdquo; 
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 Before this year, no Brazilian man had ever won gold at the outdoor World Championships &ndash; with pole vaulter Fabiana Murer in 2011 the only woman to do so &ndash; and Dos Santos knows this victory could be a game-changer for athletics back home.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m the first guy and that&rsquo;s pretty awesome, to open the door so everybody can see that they can,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They can come here and win. That&rsquo;s not impossible.&rdquo;
As a kid, things were different, and Dos Santos &ldquo;never thought this would be possible.&rdquo;
He grew up in Sao Joaquim da Barra, an area in the north of Sao Paulo, and he faced adversity early in life. When he was 10 months old, an accident at his grandparents&rsquo; home involving a frying pan of hot oil that spilled on his head left him with third-degree burns, confining him to a hospital for four months.
His first sport was judo, which he practised from the age of six to 14. &ldquo;I loved that, I really loved that,&rdquo; he said. But there was one problem: his family didn&rsquo;t have much money, and it became harder and harder to justify a sport where each training session cost money and offered little potential for return.
&ldquo;My family is not a rich family, so it was hard,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;In track and field we saw an opportunity to make money and run and go to nationals and win a medal, and we needed that. I started because of this but after a couple of months I loved it. I made new friends around the city, the states, the country, and now I do it because I love the sport.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/003e8837-dfad-4567-8072-ba497c9f3407.jpg" alt="Alison dos Santos at the IAAF World U20 Championships Tampere 2018" />
Alison dos Santos at the IAAF World U20 Championships Tampere 2018 (&copy; Getty Images)
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 In 2017, he finished fifth in the 400m hurdles at the World U18 Championships in Kenya and the following year he earned bronze at the World U20 Championships in Finland, clocking 49.78. In 2019 he won the World University title in 48.57 and then, while still an U20 athlete, he made the world final in Doha, clocking 48.28.
The pandemic put paid to his plans for 2020, but Dos Santos used that period to train and physically mature, and in 2021 he emerged better than ever, breaking the South American record six times &ndash; the last of those coming in the Olympic final, where he clocked 46.72 to take bronze.
That catapulted him to fame in Brazil, but it was only when he returned home that he understood the true impact of his medal. Dos Santos was approached everywhere he went by those telling him their memories of the race, with one guy telling him he&rsquo;d received a fine due to making excessive noise late at night as he screamed at Dos Santos on TV.
During the World Championships Dos Santos felt all that love again, the thousands of comments and messages pouring his way from his fans at home. &ldquo;The Brazilians are amazing &ndash; I love them,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They send good energy.&rdquo;
Heading to Eugene, Dos Santos wanted to win it for them as much as himself. His training had gone better than ever. For much of the year, he is based in Chula Vista, USA, training under the guidance of Brazilian coach Felipe Siqueira.
&ldquo;He was an athlete, he did the triple jump, but he was a really, really bad athlete,&rdquo; laughs Dos Santos. &ldquo;But he&rsquo;s good at coaching.&rdquo; 
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 In 2021 Dos Santos used to run with 12 strides to the second hurdle, but it&rsquo;s a sign of his progress that he can now sustain that stride pattern until hurdle four. As good as Tokyo was, he felt he needed to find more to win gold in Eugene.
&ldquo;I changed a lot about my race,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I tried to be faster, I worked on my speed, my technique over the hurdles.&rdquo;
And it all came together in Eugene. Dos Santos went to the line as the favourite, a position he was happy to occupy. &ldquo;You have more pressure, but that&rsquo;s good to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It was motivation.&rdquo;
Before the race, Dos Santos danced on the track, his choice of jig inspired by a social media post by World Athletics the morning of his race, which superimposed his, Benjamin&rsquo;s and Warholm&rsquo;s faces on a dancing trio.
&ldquo;It was so funny that I said, &lsquo;why not?&rsquo; I did the same dance to have fun and enjoy.&rdquo;
But when the gun fired, he was all business, powering through the first half quicker than everyone besides Warholm. But on the top bend the Norwegian&rsquo;s missed training began to tell, whereas Dos Santos&rsquo;s consistent brilliance this year was elevating itself to a new level.
He joined Warholm at hurdle eight, pulled clear by hurdle nine and continued to build his advantage until he hit the line in a championship record of 46.29, beating his chest and taking a well-earned bow in front of the fans. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62d791739a225fb263f36301.jpg" alt="Alison dos Santos wins the 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22" />
Alison dos Santos wins the 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (&copy; Getty Images)
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 Was it the perfect race?
&ldquo;No, no, it can be better,&rdquo; he smiled. &ldquo;It can always be better. My last hurdles, I can be better. And my second curve, it can be better.&rdquo;
Which begs the question: Is Warholm&rsquo;s world record of 45.94 next on the agenda?
&ldquo;The question is not if we can do it,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s when.&rdquo;
He knows his two brilliant rivals have helped push him to this level, and Dos Santos also knows it&rsquo;s easier to get to the top than to stay there.
&ldquo;The guys from 400m hurdles, we push the limits,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now you have to run so fast to win. If you want to win the World Championships, you need to dream (of) the record, dream of 45.&rdquo;
Once he&rsquo;d completed his media duties, Dos Santos made his way up to the local restaurant, Track Town Pizza, to enjoy a meal he&rsquo;d been looking forward to all week. He also called his family in Brazil and was particularly pleased to see his baby niece, who was born just a few days ago.
&ldquo;I do everything for my family, my nephew, my niece,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want to make a great life for my family, to make history, and I need to run fast to help them.&rdquo;
The motivation now is much the same as it was in the beginning, even if everything else has changed. These days he&rsquo;s no longer a contender, but the champion.
And now that he has &ldquo;opened the door for Brazilian guys&rdquo; at this level, there should be many more walking through it in the years to come.&nbsp;
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics

How the 22-year-old Brazilian became the new king of the 400m hurdles

Dos Santos - clearing barriers to pave the way for future stars

More than 1500 athletes from 145 teams are set to compete at the World Athletics U20 Championships Cali 22 between 1-6 August.
Here we take a look at the women's and men's hurdles and steeplechase events at the Pascual Guerrero Olympic Stadium. 
<h2>Women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles</h2>
She may be the second youngest in the field, but there&rsquo;s every chance that when the women&rsquo;s 100m hurdles reaches its climax, Jamaica&rsquo;s Kerrica Hill will be first across the line. The 17-year-old was an ultra-impressive winner of the Jamaican U20 title in 12.98 (1.5m/s) last month and, with 11.16 100m flat speed in her armoury, she will be tough to stop if getting things right technically. She will be backed up by teammate Alexis James, who clocked a PB of 13.13 last month to make the team for Cali.
The US challenge will be led by Jalaysiya Smith, who ran her PB of 13.05 (0.5m/s) in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships and who went on to win the US U20 title last month in 13.21. She will be joined by teammate Eddiyah Frye, who clocked 13.26 to finish second to Smith and make the team for Cali last month. Germany&rsquo;s Hawa Jalloh has also been in sparkling form of late, clocking a PB of 13.23 to win her national U20 title last earlier this month and she should also feature.
With next year&rsquo;s World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 starting to loom on the horizon, Hungary could well have a teenage hurdler competing on home turf there, given the progress of Anna Toth, who clocked a national U20 record of 13.23 (0.5m/s) last month and will take her shot at the world&rsquo;s best teenagers in Cali. The British charge will be led by Marli Jessop, who has a best of 13.38 this year. Others to have gone below 13.50 this season are Spain&rsquo;s Paula Blanquer, Britain&rsquo;s Mia McIntosh, Germany&rsquo;s Naomi Krebs and Czech Republic&rsquo;s Ester Bendova. 
<h2>Men&rsquo;s 110m hurdles</h2>
Dutch teenager Matthew Sophia walked away from last year&rsquo;s European U20 Championships with two silver medals &ndash; in the 110m hurdles and 4x100m relay &ndash; but the 18-year-old looks to have a great chance of going one better in Cali if he shows up in the same form he showed earlier this year. The Rotterdam Atletiek athlete tops the world U20 lists via his Dutch U20 record of 13.23 (-0.4m/s) in March, though he has raced little since winning the Carifta Games title in Jamaica in mid-April in 13.74.
The US challenge will be led by national U20 champion Malik Mixon, who won that title with a wind-assisted time of 13.26 (2.6m/s) last month. He will be joined in Cali by teammate TJ Caldwell, who clocked 13.34 at the US U20 Championships and who has run a wind-legal best of 13.40 this year. Czech Republic&rsquo;s Stepan Schubert should also be a big threat, having clocked 13.40 to win his national U20 title last month. Jamaica&rsquo;s Dishaun Lamb, South Africa&rsquo;s Denmar Jacobs and Bahamas&rsquo; Antoine Andrews have all run well below 13.50 this year and should all be in the hunt for a spot in the final. 
<h2>Women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles</h2>
Italy&rsquo;s Alessia Seramondi is the quickest athlete among the 48 entries in the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles, lowering her PB to 57.29 when winning her national U20 title in 57.29 in Rieti. US U20 champion Akala Garrett is another sure to be in the hunt for medals. She clocked a world U18 lead of 57.46 when winning the US high school title in Eugene last month. She will be backed up by teammate Michaela Rose, the LSU student who juggles the 400m hurdles, where she has a best of 57.62, with the 800m, where she has a best of 2:02.49.
Japan has a strong contender in Moe Matsuoka, the 19-year-old who finished third at her national senior championships last month in 57.57. &nbsp;Jamaica&rsquo;s Oneika McAnnuff has run 57.68 this season and could also be in the medal shake-up, along with Czech Republic&rsquo;s Ester Bendova (57.90) and Italy&rsquo;s Ludovica Cavo (57.94). The Polish duo of Wiktoria Oko and Aleksandra Wolczak should also go close &ndash; both have run 58.03 this year. 
<h2>Men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles</h2>
Turkey&rsquo;s Berke Akcam took gold in this event at the last edition of the World U20 Championships in Nairobi, and his nation has a strong change of retaining that title this year through Ismail Nezir, who lowered his PB to 49.59 last month at the Mediterranean Games. Just one athlete in the field has gone quicker than that &ndash; Roshawn Clarke of Jamaica, who set his PB of 49.39 when winning his national U20 title in Kingston last month, while his teammate Antonio Forbes shouldn&rsquo;t be far away given he has run 50.48 this year.
Slovenia&rsquo;s Matic Ian Gucek finished fifth in last year&rsquo;s world U20 final and the 18-year-old will be looking to get on the podium here, which he looks capable of doing after his national U20 record of 49.72 to win the Slovenian senior title last month.
Yeral Nunez of Dominican Republic is another who has been in fine form, setting a national U20 record of 50.07 last month. The Asian challenge is led by Japan&rsquo;s Daiki Ogawa, who has run 50.50 this year, and he will be backed up by compatriot Sojiro Moritaka, who has run 50.71. Qatar&rsquo;s Ismail Doudai Abakar is another worthy of respect &ndash; a 50.62 athlete this season. 
<h2>Women&rsquo;s 3000m steeplechase</h2>
Ethiopia&rsquo;s rise in the steeplechase has been moving at a swift pace in recent years and they have a strong contender for the world U20 champion in Sembo Almayew. The 17-year-old has been in sparkling form this season, finishing second at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Paris in 9:09.19 last month before finishing fifth in her heat at the World Championships in Oregon. She will be joined in Cali by Meseret Yeshaneh, who has a best of 9:33.34.
Kenya, unsurprisingly, will likely provide the stiffest opposition in the event they historically ruled like no other. Their challenge will be led by Faith Cherotich, the 18-year-old who won bronze at the last edition of these championships in Nairobi and who clocked a noteworthy 9:12.04 at altitude in the Kenyan capital back in May. She will be joined in Cali by teammate Pamela Kosgei, who has run 9:54.20 this year.
The European challenge will be led by Spain&rsquo;s Marta Serrano, who was sixth in the last world U20 final in Nairobi and who lowered her PB to 9:48.64 last month.
Morocco&rsquo;s Khadija Ennasri has run 10:00.49 this year, while Tunisia&rsquo;s Rihab Dhahri has run 10:03.15. Peru&rsquo;s Veronica Huacasi, Hungary&rsquo;s Greta Varga and Germany&rsquo;s Carolin Hinrichs have all run below 10:15 and will be a targeting a place in the final at the very least.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
<h2>Men&rsquo;s 3000m steeplechase</h2>
Morocco has the current world and Olympic champion in the men&rsquo;s steeplechase in Soufiane El Bakkali, and in Salaheddine Ben Yazide the nation has an athlete who could one day follow in his footsteps. The 19-year-old tops the world U20 lists with the 8:19.63 he ran at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rabat back in June and Yazide gained some top-level experience at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 earlier this month, finishing 13th in the heats. Ethiopia&rsquo;s Samuel Firewu is just behind him on the world U20 lists via the 8:19.82 he ran in Ostrava back in May and he backed that up with a fifth-place finish at the African Championships last month. He will be joined by compatriot Samuel Duguna, who has a best of 8:27.40 this season.
Kenya has long proven tough to stop in the hunt for steeplechase medals and their challenge will be led in Cali by Emmanuel Wafula, who has run 8:42.25 this season, and Haron Kibet, who has run 8:43.82.
Uganda has a pair of strong entrants in Elphas Toroitich Ndiwa and Leonard Chemutai, who have run 8:37.3 and 8:40.6 respectively this year, while the US challenge is led by Bryce Lentz who has run 8:39.73. Others to look out for include Japanese duo Ryotaro Onuma and Asahi Kuroda, along with Algeria&rsquo;s Abderrahmane Daoud &ndash; all three have all dipped below 8:50 this year.&nbsp;
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics

World Athletics U20 Championships

A look at the 100m hurdles, 110m hurdles, 400m hurdles and 3000m steeplechase

WU20 Cali 22 preview: hurdles and steeplechase

Sydney McLaughlin has done it again. For the fourth time in her remarkable 400m hurdles career, the 22-year-old has broken the world record, obliterating her previous best with 50.68 at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 on Friday (22).
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s unreal,&rdquo; she said trackside, with the Hayward Field crowd looking on in awe. &ldquo;I just wanted to run and go for it.&rdquo;
She certainly went for it. Shaving 0.73 from her previous world record, set on the same track less than a month earlier, she left her rivals &ndash; including two of the three fastest hurdlers the world has ever seen &ndash; with no response as she won her first world title in the event by more than a one-and-a-half seconds.
Netherlands&rsquo; Olympic bronze medallist Femke Bol &ndash; No.3 on the all-time list &ndash; followed her over the finish line in 52.27 to equal her season&rsquo;s best, while USA&rsquo;s former world record-holder Dalilah Muhammad &ndash; No.2 all time &ndash; clocked 53.13 for bronze.
It is the third world record that McLaughlin has set at Hayward Field. Her first came at the 2021 US Olympic Trials, when she clocked 51.90 to improve on the 52.16 global mark that Muhammad had achieved when winning the 2019 world title ahead of her compatriot.
Just over a month later, McLaughlin ran 51.46 to win the Olympic title in Tokyo, and she broke the record for a third time at this year&rsquo;s US Championships in Eugene on 25 June, clocking 51.41.
Such is the standard, this latest world record time would put McLaughlin 19th on this season&rsquo;s top list for the 400m flat. Yet the US hurdles star achieved it with 10 barriers in the way.
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 She reached the first of those barriers at roughly the same point as Muhammad made hers, and they remained pretty evenly matched at the second hurdle. But from that point on, the race looked like it would only be going one way.
With Muhammad to her right and Bol to her left, McLaughlin caught her compatriot along the back straight and blazed past her heading into the curve. By the time she left the bend, it was McLaughlin against the clock and time seemed to stand still as she surged ever closer.
Behind her, Bol drew level and then overtook Muhammad as they entered the home straight, McLaughlin striding away in the distance.
The question wasn&rsquo;t whether McLaughlin was going to break the world record, but by just how much. With the crowd on their feet, the answer soon came as the scoreboard showed 50.68.
Since 2019 &ndash; in less than three years &ndash; the world record has been improved by almost two seconds. That mark of 52.34 had stood for 16 years before Muhammad took it to 52.20 and then 52.16. On 27 June 2021, McLaughlin began her reign.
Now that previous world record mark of 52.34 is just 14th on the world all-time list.
&ldquo;The time is absolutely amazing and the sport is getting faster and faster,&rdquo; McLaughlin said of her latest performance. &ldquo;Just figuring out what barriers can be broken. I only get faster from here.
&ldquo;I executed the race the way Bobby (Kersee, her coach) wanted me to. I knew coming home that if I just kept my cadence and stayed on stride pattern, we could do it and it happened.
&ldquo;The level in the 400m hurdles is certainly improving. We have a full group of girls that are willing to push our bodies to the next level and we are seeing times drop.&rdquo;
In line with World Athletics&rsquo; commitment to further advance gender equality in the sport, the women&rsquo;s world record programme in Oregon is being supported by World Athletics as part of its International Women&rsquo;s Day #WeGrowAthletics pledge, and this saw McLaughlin receive a cheque for US$100,000 along with her gold medal.
Securing silver after a strong finish was Bol, and the 22-year-old was delighted to go one better than her Olympic bronze.
&ldquo;I ran against the best in the world, Sydney is just very strong,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;She was so far in front at the end, so I was always doubting if I really had a good race because it felt very good. Then I saw the time and I was like: &lsquo;Wow&rsquo;. It is amazing to be a part of it and to come out second in such a race.&rdquo;
For Muhammad, it is a fourth world 400m hurdles medal and she has now completed the set after gold in 2019, silver in 2013 and 2017 and now bronze in 2022.
&ldquo;I'm having mixed emotions, to be honest,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;It's great to get a medal but I came into these championships on the strength of having always gotten a medal at any championships, despite any injuries. But as a competitor, you always want more.&rdquo;
US athletes filled four of the top five spots, with 2015 world silver medallist Shamier Little fourth in 53.76 and Britton Wilson fifth in 54.02.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
&nbsp;
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center;" colspan="3">WOMEN'S 400m HURDLES MEDALLISTS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Sydney McLaughlin 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">50.68 WR</td>
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<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Femke Bol 🇳🇱 NED</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">52.27 =SB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Dalilah Muhammad 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">53.13 SB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/results/women/400-metres-hurdles/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
&nbsp;

World Athletics Championships, Oregon 2022

US hurdles superstar becomes the first to go sub-51 seconds in the event

McLaughlin obliterates world 400m hurdles record with 50.68 in Oregon

It had been one of the most anticipated races of the year: a rematch of the Olympic men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles final between Karsten Warholm and Rai Benjamin.
Could they possibly live up to the epic Tokyo final, in which both men finished inside the world record and the Norwegian took the gold in a staggering 45.94 ahead of the American in 46.17.
Not quite.
Brazil&rsquo;s Alison dos Santos upended the script on Tuesday night (19), surging to the front on the final bend and pulling away to the gold in a championship record of 46.29 at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
Not that the victory itself was particularly a surprise; the 22-year-old Dos Santos had been the best performer all year and he proved it on this night. He claimed his first world title and became the first South American to win a medal in this event at the World Championships.
And he did it by running the third-fastest time in history and setting a Brazilian, South American and US all-comers&rsquo; record.
&ldquo;I am so happy. The energy of the crowd was amazing,&rdquo; Dos Santos said. &ldquo;I felt their love, people hugging me. When you win, you start being everyone's favourite.&rdquo;
Benjamin, whose season had been disrupted by a bout of Covid-19 and tendonitis in his upper hamstring, took global silver for a third time, clocking 46.89. US teammate Trevor Bassitt out-leaned Wilfried Happio of France to grab the bronze in a personal best of 47.39.
Happio&rsquo;s fourth place time of 47.41 was faster than Warholm&rsquo;s wining time in Doha in 2019, and would have been enough to win 14 of the past 17 world titles.
For two-time defending champion Warholm, it was a humbling night. Having only recently returned to action after tearing a hamstring in early June, the Norwegian stumbled at the eighth hurdle and faded to seventh place in 48.42, covering his face in his hands in dejection after crossing the line.
Warholm hadn&rsquo;t finished a final in more than 10 months, and this was the first time he lost a race that he completed since the 2018 Continental Cup.
&ldquo;It was a very tough race,&rdquo; Warholm said. &ldquo;I had an injury but to me it's always your fight and giving your all and leaving it all on the track. I felt I did that. I hope looking back I'll feel proud of that, even though I prefer to take a medal.
&ldquo;I did a lot of hard work to get back to the championships but it wasn't enough,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;These guys do the same as me. They train every day and fight hard. I have huge respect for them. I will always give them a fight which is what I live for. Today is their day and I hope they enjoy it.&rdquo;
Dos Santos had finished third behind Warholm and Benjamin in Tokyo, but he came into these championships undefeated this year and having posted a world-leading 46.80 in Stockholm. He also defeated Benjamin in Doha in May.
On this night, Dos Santos maintained his smooth stride and technique throughout the race. He was even with Warholm through the halfway mark, then pulled away in imperious style over the final stretch.
&ldquo;That's pretty awesome to win the world title on this track,&rdquo; Dos Santos said. &ldquo;I didn't care about the time because this is the first time I won a world title. I think I can run faster. I don't think you will have a perfect race. I'll always look for ways to improve.&rdquo;
Benjamin tried to keep pace with Dos Santos on the final straight but couldn&rsquo;t gain ground.
&ldquo;My season has been rough, but I dug deep and it turned out this way,&rdquo; Benjamin said. &ldquo;I am grateful for silver. I got it done. I chopped a few hurdles and my race plan went out the window, but when I heard 'USA! USA!&rsquo; I ran as fast as I could to keep my second place.&rdquo;
The 24-year-old Bassitt, who won silver in the 400m at this year&rsquo;s World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, dipped at the line to edge Happio in the third-fastest bronze-medal time ever recorded at the World Championships.
When the scoreboard flashed Bassitt&rsquo;s name as the third-place finisher, Benjamin leapt on his back and the two tumbled on to the track.
&ldquo;To come out here, run a PB on the biggest stage and get a bronze, it's all I could ask for,&rdquo; Bassitt said. &ldquo;You can't do any better than your best and I think a medal is an incredible blessing. Sometimes you just have to run fast and that's what happened today. It's unbelievable. My first world outdoor championships to make a final and get a medal, it's not something a lot of people can say.&rdquo;
Dos Santos, meanwhile, was thinking of how he would celebrate his breakthrough title.
&ldquo;I will eat pizza at the athletes' village,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Many people have recommended it to me. Today I think I can drink soda.&rdquo;
He deserves it.
Steve Wilson for World Athletics
&nbsp;
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center;" colspan="3">MEN'S 400m HURDLES MEDALLISTS</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Alison dos Santos 🇧🇷 BRA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">46.29 CR</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Rai Benjamin 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">46.89 SB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Trevor Bassitt 🇺🇸 USA</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">47.39 PB</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/results/men/400-metres-hurdles/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
&nbsp;

22-year-old from Brazil ends Warholm's reign as world champion

Dos Santos wins first major title with 400m hurdles gold in Oregon

Karsten Warholm, Norway&rsquo;s Olympic and world 400m hurdles champion, says he is back to full health and ready to compete after sustaining a hamstring injury early in the season.&nbsp;
Warholm had a rough start to his 2022 campaign in June, when he clipped the first hurdle at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rabat and pulled up, clutching his right leg. What he initially thought to be a cramp in his hamstring turned out to be a small tear. 
He has not competed since. But now, Warholm approaches a competitive contest to defend his title at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
&ldquo;It's going to be challenging in the sense that I don't know what I can bring to the table,&rdquo; Warholm said. &ldquo;But I know for sure that all the training until the injury happened was very good.&rdquo;
Brazil&rsquo;s Olympic bronze medallist Alison dos Santos has the world leading time so far this season of 46.80, set when winning at the Diamond League in Stockholm. USA&rsquo;s Rai Benjamin got silver behind Warholm at both the 2019 World Championships and last year&rsquo;s Olympic Games in Tokyo, and has a season&rsquo;s best of 47.04.
It was at the Tokyo Olympics that Warholm improved his own world record to a staggering 45.94 in one of the finest races in athletics history. Benjamin clocked 46.17, a performance that would have broken the previous world record, while Dos Santos ran 46.72 for a mark inside the world record that had belonged to Kevin Young from 1992 until Warholm broke it in July 2021. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62d04696b7661551f104a070.jpg" alt="Karsten Warholm breaks the world 400m hurdles record to win Olympic gold ahead of Rai Benjamin and Alison dos Santos" />
Karsten Warholm breaks the world 400m hurdles record to win Olympic gold ahead of Rai Benjamin and Alison dos Santos (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
To maintain his claim as world champion, Warholm has spent the last five weeks working to recoup his fitness. He said that preparing for this event with a focus on being healthy is not ideal, and is &ldquo;probably the hardest task&rdquo; of his career.
With the help of his coach, Leif Olav Alnes, Warholm has been training at the University of California in Berkeley. He said his recent performances in training compare to benchmarks he set in previous seasons.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m the world defender and if I&rsquo;m going there, it&rsquo;s because I feel like I have something to come with,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now I can say that I feel good to go. And when I feel good to go, I&rsquo;m going to go 100%.&rdquo;
The 26-year-old is also relishing the chance to return to global competition at Hayward Field, where he contested the decathlon at the World Athletics U20 Championships in 2014.
&ldquo;There was a great atmosphere and a packed stadium, it&rsquo;s an audience that knows their track and field very well,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That was one of my last decathlons and it was pretty special to be here.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Warholm added that in the 400m hurdles, &ldquo;there&rsquo;s no compensating&rdquo;. He knows that going up against Benjamin, who will be competing on home soil, and Dos Santos will not be easy.
&ldquo;They won&rsquo;t be giving me any slack, that&rsquo;s for sure,&rdquo; Warholm added. &ldquo;The level is very good right now, probably one of the best eras of the event.&rdquo;
But to Warholm, the competition is a welcome challenge.
&ldquo;This is what I love to do, I&rsquo;m a very competitive person. If I&rsquo;m on the line, I want there to be competition. I want to have a good fight,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That is what brings excitement to the sport.&rdquo;
Madeline Ryan for World Athletics

The world record-holder says he feels "good to go" in Oregon after a hamstring injury 

Warholm ready for world 400m hurdles title defence

<h2>Men's 400m hurdles</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/timetable/bydiscipline/men/400-metres-hurdles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/400mh/men?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;rankDate=2022-06-26&amp;limitByCountry=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/hurdles/400-metres-hurdles/outdoor/men/senior/2022?regionType=world&amp;timing=electronic&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/hurdles/400-metres-hurdles/outdoor/men/senior?regionType=world&amp;timing=electronic&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true&amp;firstDay=1900-01-01&amp;lastDay=2022-07-06" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/hurdles/400-metres-hurdles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
It proved the race of the Olympics in Tokyo &ndash; a riveting showdown that produced an unfathomably fast winning time of 45.94 &ndash; but the question now is this: can the encore at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 possibly live up to it?
The answer hinges on another series of questions.
One: how fit is Karsten Warholm after the hamstring injury he sustained in Rabat in early June? When the Norwegian lines up in Oregon, it will have been over 10 months since he last finished a race.&nbsp;
Two: how much will the several weeks of missed training &ndash; due to a bad bout of Covid-19 and tendonitis in his upper hamstring &ndash; have taken out of USA&rsquo;s Rai Benjamin?
And three: is Alison dos Santos &ndash; the 22-year-old Brazilian who&rsquo;s the fastest in the world this year &ndash; truly ready to depose the two men who beat him in Tokyo and become the first ever South American to win a medal in this event at the World Championships?
While the heats and semifinals on 16/17 July should throw up some indications, it will likely only be in the final, on the evening of 19 July, that the picture comes into clear focus.&nbsp;
So, back to the first of those questions: how is Warholm&rsquo;s hamstring?&nbsp;
On 4 July, the world record-holder said he was &ldquo;still undergoing rehabilitation, but it's going the right way.&rdquo; Though he also added: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s clear that I need the time to be 100% ready for the competition.&rdquo;
His coach, Leif Olav Alnes, said they were &ldquo;positive but realistic considering this type of injury needs time&rdquo; and that they did &ldquo;not want to take any chances of starting too early.&rdquo;
Warholm holds two of the three fastest times in history, and four of the top 10. He hasn&rsquo;t lost a 400m hurdles race that he finished since the 2018 Continental Cup. But no matter what level of fitness he brings to Hayward Field, his opponents are ready to take aim.&nbsp;
Chief among them is Benjamin, who was so painfully denied gold after his astonishing 46.17 clocking in Tokyo last year. &ldquo;If you would have told me that I was going to run 46.1 and lose,&rdquo; he said then, &ldquo;I would have probably beaten you up and told you to get out of my room.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/2032b5db-5e0d-4287-b20b-8fc2960f9526.jpg" alt="Rai Benjamin in opening round of the 400m hurdles at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019" />
Rai Benjamin in opening round of the 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
Benjamin was defeated by Dos Santos in Doha in May &ndash; 47.24 to 47.49 &ndash; and things only worsened thereafter, with Benjamin admitting at the recent US Championships that he&rsquo;s been running through pain for several weeks.&nbsp;
&ldquo;No one really gives a s*** that you&rsquo;re hurt &ndash; just come out here and do what you can do,&rdquo; he said after powering to victory in 47.04.&nbsp;&ldquo;This sport is so unforgiving; it doesn&rsquo;t care who you are or what you&rsquo;re doing. It&rsquo;s a really rough year for the 400m hurdles, but I wouldn&rsquo;t count the event out. I know (Warholm will) be fine. I just won&rsquo;t believe anything until we all show up and line up.&rdquo;
With the two fastest men in history carrying health concerns, Dos Santos could be primed to take advantage and take his first global title. The 22-year-old is undefeated this year at his specialist event and appears to be benefiting from a new stride pattern: last year he ran with 12 steps until the second hurdle; this year he does it to hurdle four.&nbsp;
He&rsquo;s relishing the chance to take on his two big rivals in Oregon.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Benjamin doesn&rsquo;t like to lose, and Warholm too,&rdquo; said Dos Santos in Eugene in May, where he clocked 47.23 on a cool, damp day. &ldquo;We all train so hard to win, so we need to have focus and think, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ll do my best here.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Dos Santos said he &ldquo;was expecting such (a) time&rdquo; after running 46.80 in Stockholm and given he took 0.62 off his season&rsquo;s best in Tokyo last year, he has reason to dream of the ultimate goal in Oregon. &ldquo;I feel ready for the championships now and it will be very exciting,&rdquo; he said.
And what about that mind-boggling time from Tokyo: 45.94?
&ldquo;I think about the world record every day, every night,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I dream of that.&rdquo;
A look into the three big contenders offers few answers as to who might prevail, and so just one question remains: could anyone else spring a surprise?
US duo Trevor Bassitt and Khalifah Rosser look the most likely if so, particularly on a track they know so well. Bassitt has enjoyed a breakthrough year, the 24-year-old winning world indoor silver over 400m in Belgrade and taking almost a second off his PB to finish second to Benjamin at the US Championships in 47.47. Rosser, 26, took almost half a second off his best when finishing third there in 47.65.
Estonia&rsquo;s Rasmus Magi is enjoying his best season to date, the 30-year-old clocking a national record of 47.82 in Turku, Finland, in June, though of his five races this season that was the sole outing under 48.50.&nbsp;
Turkey&rsquo;s Yasmani Copello took a notable win at the Mediterranean Games in Oran, Algeria, earlier this month in a season&rsquo;s best of 48.27, and in Oregon he could challenge the 47.81 he clocked to finish sixth in last year&rsquo;s Olympic final.&nbsp;
Jamaican champion Jaheel Hyde proved he&rsquo;s in good form by clocking 48.51 to win that title in Kingston last month, while Kyron McMaster &ndash; fourth in last year&rsquo;s Olympic final in 47.08 &ndash; showed in Stockholm last month that his form is coming around by finishing third in 48.58.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s been a year of mishaps for Warholm and Benjamin, a year of utter magnificence by Dos Santos, and all the intrigue and uncertainty means this race is still shrouded in mystery. It means the sequel to that Tokyo showdown could prove just as stunning.
&nbsp;
<h2>Women's 400m hurdles</h2>
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-championships/oregon22/timetable/bydiscipline/women/400-metres-hurdles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timetable</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/world-rankings/400mh/women?regionType=world&amp;page=1&amp;rankDate=2022-06-26&amp;limitByCountry=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world rankings</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/toplists/hurdles/400-metres-hurdles/outdoor/women/senior/2022?regionType=world&amp;timing=electronic&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 world list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/records/all-time-toplists/hurdles/400-metres-hurdles/outdoor/women/senior?regionType=world&amp;timing=electronic&amp;page=1&amp;bestResultsOnly=true&amp;firstDay=1900-01-01&amp;lastDay=2022-07-06" target="_blank" rel="noopener">world all-time list</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/disciplines/hurdles/400-metres-hurdles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how it works</a>
How to beat the athlete who has it all? For Sydney McLaughlin&rsquo;s rivals, accomplished as they are, that&rsquo;s the key conundrum ahead of the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles final on 22 July. Something special will undoubtedly be required to keep the 22-year-old superstar from the one thing currently missing from her athletic resume: World Championships gold.
If McLaughlin delivers a performance close to what she did at her national championships last month &ndash; where she broke her own world record with 51.41 &ndash; then it could prove a pointless pursuit, and given her affinity for Hayward Field few would bet against another all-time mark being surpassed.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s TrackTown USA, what do you expect?&rdquo; she said after that record run at the US Championships. &ldquo;Every time I come here, I can just feel something amazing is going to happen. It just always brings amazing performances out of me.&rdquo;
She was quick to note after that race that she&rsquo;s still not near her limit. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s always something to improve upon,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think the perfect race exists.&rdquo;
McLaughlin&rsquo;s career has long been defined by a once-in-a-generation outlying ability that, were she to retire now, would already make her an all-time great. She holds the world 400m hurdles bests at every age from 14 to 19, the world U18 record at 54.15, the world U20 record at 53.60 and since her last defeat in this event &ndash; in the 2019 world final &ndash; she has taken it into the stratosphere, breaking the world record three times with 51.90, 51.46 and 51.41.&nbsp;
She opened her season with a stunning 51.61 in Nashville &ndash; all the more impressive given she had to alter her stride pattern mid-race due to a hurdle being placed on the incorrect mark. At the US Championships she was foot-perfect and had 1.6 seconds to spare over runner-up Britton Wilson (53.08) &ndash; who won the NCAA title earlier in the month &ndash; while Shamier Little also secured a berth on the US team after finishing third in 53.92. Little was the world silver medallist in 2015 and having run 52.39 last year, she could be a medal threat if she&rsquo;s back to her best.&nbsp;
Former world record-holder Dalilah Muhammad bypassed the US Championships due to a hamstring injury, but the 2019 world champion and 2016 Olympic gold medallist is sure to feature again if fully recovered, although she hasn&rsquo;t raced since May. With the 51.58 she ran in the Olympic final last year, she remains the sole athlete whose best effort could truly trouble McLaughlin.&nbsp;
However, Dutch star Femke Bol could well be on the way to doing so and she seems primed to join the 51-second club in the weeks ahead. The 22-year-old clocked a European record of 52.03 to win Olympic bronze last year and she&rsquo;s been unbeaten in her four races this season at 400m hurdles, most recently clocking 52.27 to win in Stockholm. She also set a world best of 36.86 for 300m hurdles and if McLaughlin does run into any difficulty, Bol looks best placed to take advantage.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It was a good race, but not perfect,&rdquo; she said in Stockholm. &ldquo;I am still hoping to do something very special in Eugene. When you see the results from Hayward, I am so excited to go there.&rdquo; 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62c9786c836dd43fd4bae235.jpg" alt="Femke Bol at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019" />
Femke Bol at the World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 (&copy; AFP / Getty Images)
</div>
Jamaica has a strong trio in Shiann Salmon, Janieve Russell and Rushell Clayton. Russell is the quickest of them this season, clocking 53.63 to win their national title last month, where Salmon followed her home in a PB of 53.82 with Clayton &ndash; the 2019 world bronze medallist &ndash; third in 54.20.&nbsp;
Norway&rsquo;s Line Kloster was one of many to produce a breakthrough performance at La Chaux-de-Fonds earlier this month with a national record of 53.91, and she could reach the final in Oregon if replicating that in the lower altitudes of Eugene.&nbsp;
British athletes Jessie Knight and Lina Nielsen, Ukrainian duo Anna Ryzhykova and Viktoriya Tkachuk, Italy&rsquo;s Ayomide Folorunso and Spain&rsquo;s Sara Gallego are others who have run below 55 seconds this season and all could contend for spots in the final. Panama&rsquo;s Gianna Woodruff, who was seventh in the Olympic final last year and who has a season&rsquo;s best of 54.35, should also be in contention.&nbsp;
Cathal&nbsp;Dennehy for World Athletics

Expected highlights in the women's and men's 400m hurdles

WCH Oregon22 preview: 400m hurdles

Sydney McLaughlin does not race often, but she produces memorable performances whenever she does step on the track. Running a sizzling world record of 51.41* in the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles on a hot afternoon at the US Championships on Saturday (25), McLaughlin has now set world records in three of her past four 400m hurdles finals.
Clearing the hurdles effortlessly and with no one pressing her, McLaughlin broke her own record of 51.46 from the Tokyo Olympics, where she captured the gold medal. McLaughlin set her first world record of 51.90 on this same track, Hayward Field in Eugene, during last year&rsquo;s US Olympic Trials and will return here next month for the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
&ldquo;I knew it was going to be fast,&rdquo; McLaughlin said. &ldquo;I looked at the time and I was really happy with it &ndash; being able to slowly progress towards lower and lower times &ndash; and I think there&rsquo;s still things I could work on. I think there&rsquo;s a little bit more in the tank there, so hopefully when it&rsquo;s time we can just empty it completely.&rdquo;
Before the three rounds of the US Championships, McLaughlin had run only twice this season: one 100m hurdles race and one 400m hurdles race, in which she clocked a world-leading 51.61 with one of the hurdles placed in the wrong position. She then withdrew from the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in New York two weeks ago to focus on the National Championships.
McLaughlin had a lead of about six metres entering the home straight and that margin had grown significantly by the time she reached the finish. NCAA champion Britton Wilson ran a PB of 53.08 for second and Shamier Little, the 2015 world silver medallist who missed the US Olympic team last year by one spot, was third with a season&rsquo;s best of 53.92.
McLaughlin was the world silver medallist in 2019 behind former world record-holder Dalilah Muhammad, who has a wildcard entry to the World Championships as defending champion and did not compete at the US Championships.
They will likely face off next month, where McLaughlin said, &ldquo;we want to put on a show for the world.&rdquo;
<h2>Norman rewrites Hayward Field record</h2>
Michael Norman posted a world-leading time of 43.56 to win the men&rsquo;s 400m, besting his own 43.60 from the Prefontaine Classic in May on the same track. He now owns the three fastest times at Hayward Field, having also run 43.61 in 2018.
Champion Allison nearly lived up to his name, finishing second with a PB of 43.70 while challenging Norman, who had to dig deep to pull away on the final stretch. Randolph Ross was third in 44.17. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b7a92f362878d774b5717c.jpg" alt="Michael Norman in the 400m at the US Championships" />
Michael Norman in the 400m at the US Championships (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
 Norman has run only six races this season. &ldquo;I think I&rsquo;m in a pretty good place,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m in really good shape. I&rsquo;m excited to go back and dissect the race and figure out what areas I need to fine tune. I know it was nowhere near a perfect race.&rdquo;
Norman will be seeking his first individual medal at a World Championships or Olympic Games, having finished fifth in Tokyo and failing to reach the final in Doha in 2019. &ldquo;It does give me a little bit more comfort knowing that I&rsquo;ve gone through the process and know what the experience is like,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I just want a different outcome.&rdquo;
<h2>Diggs digs deep</h2>
Talitha Diggs, daughter of four-time Olympian Joetta Clark and niece of world and Olympic 800m finalist Hazel Clark, won the 400m in 50.22 to make her first national team. Olympic 4x400m gold medallists Kendall Ellis and Lynna Irby were second (50.35) and third (50.67) respectively.
&ldquo;To see my mom and my aunt win so many of these titles, for me to get my own is a blessing,&rdquo; said Diggs, who is the only US woman to break 50 seconds this season with a 49.99 for fourth on the world list.
Allyson Felix put herself in the frame for relay consideration for what would be her 10th World Championships team by placing sixth in 51.24.
This is the farewell season for the 36-year-old, who made her first appearance at a senior US Championships 21 years ago.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy I have no more open 400s ever in life,&rdquo; Felix said with a laugh. &ldquo;I wanted to come here, put myself in a position to be considered for one of the relays, so I can&rsquo;t be upset. I&rsquo;m grateful for all of the memories and happy I did it one more time.&rdquo;
Felix is the most decorated US track and field athlete and has 13 World Championships gold medals, three silvers and two bronzes.
<h2>Harrison holds off Johnson</h2>
The 100m hurdles had the closest finish of the day, with Keni Harrison out-leaning Alaysha Johnson at the tape. Harrison, the world record-holder and Olympic silver medallist, clocked a season&rsquo;s best of 12.34 to Johnson&rsquo;s PB of 12.35. Alia Armstrong was third at 12.47.
Nia Ali, the world champion who is coming back from maternity leave, ran 12.49 in the semis and then withdrew because she has a wildcard entry for the World Championships. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62b7a9d6320762a7da9f0dc7.jpg" alt="Kendra Harrison in the 100m hurdles at the US Championships" />
Kendra Harrison in the 100m hurdles at the US Championships (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
 In the upset of the day, Maggie Malone, the US record-holder and world leader in the women&rsquo;s javelin, was eliminated after three straight fouls. The Olympic finalist put her hands to her head in distress after her third toss was wide right.
Kara Winger won the event with a season&rsquo;s best of 64.26m for her ninth national title going back to 2008.
Two-time Olympic finalist Keturah Orji leaped 14.79m to win her sixth US crown in the women&rsquo;s triple jump, putting her second on the world list this season. The only better marks in US history are Orji&rsquo;s US record of 14.92m from 2021 and Tori Franklin&rsquo;s 14.84m from 2018.
Franklin was second with a season&rsquo;s best of 14.59m and NCAA champion Jasmine Moore was third with 14.15m.
World and Olympic finalist Hillary Bor pulled away to win his third US steeplechase title while US record-holder Evan Jager proved that he is back after a hard four years full of injuries.
Bor&rsquo;s winning time was 8:15.76, followed by Jager at 8:17.29 and Benard Keter at 8:19.16.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m glad he made the team,&rdquo; Bor said of Jager. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m happy for him now, more than me.&rdquo;
Jager, the 2016 Olympic silver medallist, was one of the top steeplechasers in the world between 2012 and 2018.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a real hard long journey to build back my body and my confidence,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I definitely haven&rsquo;t felt like myself this last season steepling. I&rsquo;m really proud of myself being able to get back here and making the team.&rdquo;
Daniel Haugh became the sixth US man to throw beyond 80 metres in the hammer, winning the title with 80.18m and beating continental record-holder Rudy Winkler in the process.
Cooper Teare, who is known more as a 5000m runner, won a strategic men&rsquo;s 1500m in 3:45.86 while Sinclaire Johnson won the women&rsquo;s 1500m in 4:03.29.
Karen Rosen for World Athletics
*Subject to the usual ratification procedure

Takes 0.05 off the record she set when winning Olympic gold

McLaughlin breaks world 400m hurdles record with 51.41 at US Championships

The Stade Prince Moulay Abdellah was in pandemonium tonight as local hero Soufiane El Bakkali, Morocco&rsquo;s golden champion of the Tokyo Olympics, won the steeplechase in a meeting record and world lead of 7:58.28 at the Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athletisme de Rabat on Sunday (5).
Earlier the large crowd, relishing the return of the Wanda Diamond League to this arena for the first time in three years, had voiced huge dismay as Norway&rsquo;s Olympic 400m hurdles champion and world record-holder Karsten Warholm, making his keenly anticipated 2022 debut, pulled up and held his right hamstring after clearing the first hurdle.
After that downswing, the final upswing created such excitement that El Bakkali, having once more defeated the man he beat to gold in Tokyo &ndash; Ethiopia&rsquo;s Lamecha Girma &ndash; was mobbed by youngsters as he attempted to leave the arena.
He had tracked Girma all the way before choosing his moment, always appearing in control of his fortunes. It was a huge marker for his prospects of adding world gold this summer to the silver and bronze he already owns.
Girma also dipped under eight minutes, clocking 7:59.24, with his compatriot Hailemariyam Tegegn, who had kept in touch with the two leaders until the final lap, third in a personal best of 8:06.29.
Behind him, the revived and recuperated 2016 Olympic champion Conseslus Kipruto took fourth place in 8:12.47, with India&rsquo;s Avinash Mukund Sable fifth in a national record of 8:12.48. A momentous race.
For Warholm, however, the night ended swiftly and unexpectedly.
On the eve of the meeting the Norwegian had commented: &ldquo;There&rsquo;s always a lot of nerves when it comes to the season starter because you know you have been putting in a lot of training but you don&rsquo;t know what to expect.&rdquo; True enough. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/629d227f263094c40bc17507.jpg" alt="Khallifah Rosser in the 400m hurdles in Rabat" />
Khallifah Rosser in the 400m hurdles in Rabat (&copy; Diamond League / Matt Quine)
</div>
 At the start of a sequence he was hoping would take him smoothly on to a third world title and, perhaps, an even faster time than his monumental world record of 45.94, the amiable 26-year-old was suddenly faced with the downside of this sporting life.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s probably a cramp in my hamstring &ndash; my leg seized up,&rdquo; Warholm said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not fun to stop like this. It&rsquo;s not something I expected, I felt very, very good. So we will just have to see what is happening.&rdquo;
As the world and Olympic champion was convening despondently on the first bend with his long-time coach Leif Olav Alnes, the departed field arrived at the line, with Khallifah Rosser crossing first in a meeting record of 48.25 from Estonia&rsquo;s Rasmus Magi, who clocked 48.73.
So Alison dos Santos, the 21-year-old Brazilian who took Olympic bronze last year, looks like he might be safe for a while yet at the top of this year&rsquo;s world list with the 47.23 he clocked at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene.
A third meeting record was set in the women&rsquo;s 100m.
Jamaica&rsquo;s double Olympic 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, who had maintained on the eve of competition that she was &ldquo;not in the best shape&rdquo; nevertheless delivered a smooth performance that brought her victory in 10.83.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast was second in 11.04, from Natasha Morrison of Jamaica, who clocked 11.22. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/629d222e263094c40bc17501.jpg" alt="Elaine Thompson-Herah in the 100m in Rabat" />
Elaine Thompson-Herah in the 100m in Rabat (&copy; Diamond League / Matt Quine)
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<h2>&nbsp;</h2>
<h2>Ceh and Tentoglou maintain momentum</h2>
Kristjan Ceh retained his current hero status in the men&rsquo;s discus. The 22-year-old Slovenian, who retains his glasses during competition, has something of the look of Clark Kent &ndash; but he is currently throwing like Superman.
Having set a Diamond League and Slovenian record of 71.27m in Birmingham, improving on his previous PB of 68.75m and moving up to 10th on the all-time list, Ceh repeated the trick with a massive effort of 69.42m.
That took over the lead from Sweden&rsquo;s Olympic and world champion Daniel Stahl, who had managed 67.16m in the previous round. And after Ceh improved still further to 69.68m in the final round, Stahl could only muster 62.53m.
Australia&rsquo;s Matthew Denny also excelled himself on the night, taking third place with a personal best of 67.07m.
Greece&rsquo;s Olympic long jump gold medallist Miltiadis Tentoglou made good on his vow to &ldquo;defend the long jump pride&rdquo; by beating decathlete Simon Ehammer of Switzerland, who cleared a world-leading 8.45m at last weekend&rsquo;s combined events competition in G&ouml;tzis. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/629d22a5263094c40bc1750a.jpg" alt="Miltiadis Tentoglou in the long jump in Rabat" />
Miltiadis Tentoglou in the long jump in Rabat (&copy; Diamond League / Matt Quine)
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 While Tentoglou, who added another gold to his collection in March at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, carried the day with his fourth-round effort of 8.27m, the Swiss still rides high.
Ehammer &ndash; reported to be contemplating doubling up at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 &ndash; had taken the lead with his third-round distance of 8.11m.
He improved that to 8.13m in the final round after Tentoglou, who had thrown his arms up in frustration as a handsome-looking fifth attempt was ruled out, had failed to register a final distance.
Olympic bronze medallist Maykel Masso of Cuba was third with 8.08m.
<h2>Convincing 1500m wins for Meshesha and Wightman</h2>
Ethiopia dominated the women&rsquo;s 1500m, with Hirut Meshesha, who was five metres clear when the second of the two pacers stepped away with 500 metres remaining, held on to her lead despite the challenge around the final bend of Freweyni Hailu, who moved out into lane two to try to move past her compatriot but lacked the strength to make any further impression.
Meshesha crossed in a personal best of 3:57.30, with the 21-year-old Hailu second in 3:58.18 and Axumawit Embaye taking third place in 3:58.80 ahead of Australia&rsquo;s Georgia Griffith, who gamely kept in touch with the lead throughout and was rewarded with a personal best of 4:00.16. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/629d2259263094c40bc17504.jpg" alt="Hirut Meshesha wins the 1500m in Rabat" />
Hirut Meshesha wins the 1500m in Rabat (&copy; Diamond League / Matt Quine)
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 Britain&rsquo;s Jake Wightman ran a perfectly judged race to win the men&rsquo;s 1500m in 3:32.62 ahead of his compatriot, fellow Olympic finalist and namesake Jake Heyward, who clocked 3:33.54.
Wightman made his move on the final lap, moving clear down the home straight to finish in composed fashion, with home athlete Abellatif Sadiki finishing strongly to take third place in 3:33.93 as Spain&rsquo;s Mohamed Katir, a front-runner until the final 100 metres, falling all the way back to seventh place.
Kenya&rsquo;s 17-year-old Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the world U20 800m champion, followed up his victory in Ostrava on Wednesday with another assured display that belied his age, maintaining himself within striking distance of the lead throughout and finishing strongest in 1:45.47.
Botswana&rsquo;s fast-finishing 2012 Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos was second in 1:45.66 with France&rsquo;s Gabriel Tual striving hugely for third place in 1:45.71.
Kenya&rsquo;s Collins Kipruto dropped away to fourth over the final 50 metres, but his compatriots Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich, the respective Olympic gold and silver medallists, had an even less happy time in warm but blustery conditions, finishing eighth and 10th respectively in 1:46.93 and 1:47.72.
Like the men&rsquo;s steeplechase, the women&rsquo;s 3000m produced sustained competition as Kenya&rsquo;s Mercy Cherono and European indoor champion Amy-Eloise Markovc battled all the way down the finishing straight before the Kenyan edged home in 8:40.29, 0.03 clear.
Cherono had tracked the US-based Briton round the final bend before striking for home, but Markovc resolutely refused to let any light develop between them and was rewarded with a personal best of 8:40.32, with Ethiopian teenager Medina Eisa third in 8:41.42.
Three years after making his international debut at this meeting &ndash; where he finished fourth in 20.51 &ndash; Kenny Bednarek returned as the Olympic 200m silver medallist, and he gave a performance in keeping with that standing as he won in 20.21 from lane seven, comfortably clear of South Africa&rsquo;s Luxolo Adams, who clocked 20.35.
The women&rsquo;s 400m saw the Dominican Republic&rsquo;s Olympic silver medallist and world leader Marileidy Paulino finishing two metres clear in 50.10, with Sada Williams of Barbados second in 50.74 and Stephenie Ann McPherson of Jamaica third in 51.37.
<h2>Jumps victories for Morris, Mahuchikh and Lafond</h2>
Sandi Morris, set on following successive world pole vault silvers with gold in the home setting of Eugene, Oregon this summer, maintained her winning form with a confident display.
By contrast, her training partner Katie Nageotte, the Olympic champion, failed to clear her opening height of 4.30m. Morris, meanwhile, did not enter the competition until 4.55m, clearing at the second attempt, and a first-time clearance at 4.65m confirmed victory. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/629d233f263094c40bc1750d.jpg" alt="Triple jump winner Thea Lafond in Rabat" />
Triple jump winner Thea Lafond in Rabat (&copy; Diamond League / Matt Quine)
</div>
 Australia&rsquo;s Nina Kennedy was also clear first time at 4.65m, despite making 4.55m on her third attempt, but then had to retire. Greece&rsquo;s 2016 Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi was third, clearing 4.55m first time but then being unable to make 4.65m.
Ukraine&rsquo;s Olympic bronze medallist and world silver medal-winning high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who has already earned world indoor gold this year, maintained her winning momentum with a first-time clearance at 1.96m before skipping up to take three unsuccessful attempts at 2.01m.
Like her two compatriots Iryna Gerashchenko and Yuliya Levchenko, the 20-year-old was sporting a badge pinned to her vest in support of Ukraine&rsquo;s resistance to the Russian invasion.
Gerashchenko cleared 1.93m and took second place on countback ahead of Australia&rsquo;s Olympic silver medallist Nicola Olsylagers &ndash; formerly McDermott &ndash; and Kazakhstan&rsquo;s Nadezhda Dubovitskaya.
Thea Lafond of Dominica won the women&rsquo;s triple jump with a fifth-round effort of 14.46m, with Shanieka Ricketts of Jamaica second with 14.43m and Slovenia&rsquo;s Neja Filipic third, a centimetre behind.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics

World and Olympic 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm pulls up after the first barrier

El Bakkali rocks Rabat with world-leading steeplechase victory

Czech Republic&rsquo;s Zuzana Hejnova, the two-time world 400m hurdles champion and Olympic bronze medallist, has confirmed her retirement from competitive athletics.
The 35-year-old, who has announced that she is expecting a baby, is to bid an official farewell to her successful career at the Ostrava Golden Spike &ndash; a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting &ndash; on 31 May.
&ldquo;I wanted to say goodbye in front of Czech spectators,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I have had a great career and from the bottom of my heart&nbsp;I thank&nbsp;everyone who supported me. I'm looking forward to a new role now.&rdquo;
World U18 gold in 2003 was the first of the global titles claimed by Hejnova, the then 16-year-old clocking 57.54 to win the 400m hurdles in Sherbrooke, Canada. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/628381235b57bac3508cdee6.jpg" alt="Zuzana Hejnova celebrates her win at the 2003 World U18 Championships" />
Zuzana Hejnova celebrates her win at the 2003 World U18 Championships (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
She broke the Czech U20 record for the first time at the World U20 Championships in Grosseto the following year, her 57.44 securing silver, and lowered it again in 2005, eventually taking it to 55.89 when winning the 2005 European U20 title in Kaunas.
Hejnova then broke the Czech senior record the following year and improved it every season from 2006 to 2011. During that period she claimed 400m hurdles bronze at the 2007 European U23 Championships, made her Olympic debut with a seventh-place finish in Beijing in 2008 and secured silver as part of the Czech 4x400m team at the 2010 World Indoor Championships.
Hejnova became an Olympic medallist two years later, winning bronze at the 2012 Games in London, and that was to prove just the start.
During an unbeaten 2013 season in her specialist event, Hejnova won the first of her two world 400m hurdles titles and she did it with the performance of her life &ndash; clocking a still-standing Czech record of 52.83 to get gold in Moscow. She won the overall Diamond League title &ndash; a feat she repeated in 2015 &ndash; and was named athlete of the year by European Athletics and the Czech Athletics Federation. 
<div><img style="max-width: 900px; width: 100%; display: block;" src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/864004a9-f240-48cd-a84a-068bf5fc8031.jpg" alt="Zuzana Hejnova in the women's 400m hurdles at the World Championships Moscow 2013" />
Zuzana Hejnova in the women's 400m hurdles at the World Championships Moscow 2013 (&copy; Getty Images)
</div>
She retained her world title in Beijing in 2015 &ndash; becoming the only athlete to win back-to-back world gold medals in the women&rsquo;s 400m hurdles &ndash; and also achieved top-five finishes in London in 2017 and Doha in 2019. Hejnova then became a three-time Olympian in 2016, finishing fourth in the 400m hurdles in Rio, and claimed European indoor 400m silver in Belgrade the following year.
Despite injury struggles, she returned to reach the final of the World Championships in 2019 and then ran her last race at the Ostrava Golden Spike in September 2020. There she contested the 300m hurdles, an event in which she set the world best of 38.16 in 2013.
World Athletics

The Olympic medallist is to bid an official farewell to her successful career at the Ostrava Golden Spike.

Two-time world 400m hurdles champion Hejnova retires

A look back at the key moments of 2021 in the hurdles

2021 review: hurdles

It&rsquo;s no surprise to hear that since the Tokyo Olympic Games, Norway&rsquo;s men&rsquo;s 400m hurdles champion and world record-holder Karsten Warholm has been receiving even more attention in his home country.
Not that he minds, however, which is just as well as his solution otherwise is an idea he refuses to entertain.
&ldquo;Norwegians have been very kind to me,&rdquo; he smiles. &ldquo;There is a bit more attention, but if I want to get rid of the attention I could just run slower, and I don&rsquo;t see that as an option right now!&rdquo;
Given the year Warholm has had, that is an incredibly exciting prospect.
The 25-year-old is speaking to the world&rsquo;s media, fresh from having been named Male World Athlete of the Year at the World Athletics Awards 2021 in Monaco. The honour caps an incredible season in which the hurdles star twice broke the world 400m hurdles record &ndash; taking the event to a whole new level to become Olympic champion &ndash; and also claimed the Diamond Trophy, broke the world 300m hurdles best and extended his now three-year unbeaten streak in his specialist event. 
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TgRD11n4vT0" width="100%" height="475" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> 
It's another big moment for Warholm, as being named World Athlete of the Year is an honour he has been chasing since he claimed his first World Athletics award in 2017.
&ldquo;This award has been on my bucket list, especially since I got the Rising Star award some years back,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I feel like it&rsquo;s even better when you can complete that, because the Rising Star is an award to show that you are on the right path, but this award shows that I managed to take the big step into being an elite senior athlete as well. So, it&rsquo;s a very proud moment for me and I cherish and really appreciate that World Athletics has given me this award.&rdquo;
Back in 2017, Warholm was celebrating having won his first world title, just a couple of years after switching his focus from multi events to the single one-lap discipline. &ldquo;I figured what I liked even more than being a multi evener was to win and I wanted to go to the Olympics,&rdquo; Warholm, the 2013 world U18 octathlon champion and 2015 European U20 decathlon silver medallist, has explained.
His 2017 world gold, won in the rain in London, would prove to be just the start of his global success. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/a74b49ef-6abe-42dd-9c09-fad5a225bb82.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> 
After improving his PB to 47.64 when winning European gold the following year, Warholm retained his world title in Doha in 2019 and moved to second on the world all-time list with a 46.92 clocking in Zurich that same season.
He would remain in that No.2 spot, consolidated by the 46.87 he ran in Stockholm in August 2020, until the USA&rsquo;s Rai Benjamin pushed him down a place by running 46.83 at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene this June. That came at the beginning of a remarkable few months for the discipline, in both the men&rsquo;s and women&rsquo;s events.
Five days later, Warholm lined up at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in his home Bislett Stadion in Oslo. Just 46.70 seconds after the gun went, he stormed over the finish line. The crowd, understandably, went wild, as did Warholm, with his time having taken 0.08 off the world record which had been set by Kevin Young at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, three and a half years before Warholm was even born.
"It might take another world record to win the Olympics,&rdquo; he said at the time.
He was right.
In Tokyo, in what proved to be one of the most incredible performances in athletics history, the Norwegian obliterated his own world record, running 45.94 to get gold in a race of remarkable depth. Behind him, both Benjamin and Brazil&rsquo;s Alison dos Santos finished inside Young&rsquo;s pre-2021 world record. 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/6108e095315c5c8e31410f1f.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> 
&ldquo;It has been an incredible journey and I was very lucky to have that 2017 season where I won the gold in the 400m hurdles in London and nobody expected it, not even myself,&rdquo; Warholm explains. &ldquo;It gave me the belief that I was able to perform at the highest level and win medals.
"Then I had a bit of a tough 2018, I was beaten a lot that year, but I got back in 2019 and started to run really quick. Through the pandemic, I was able to train very well. Then in 2021 I was able to break the world record on home soil in Oslo. It felt almost like fate. It has been a lot of hard work and I think it is also a lot about consistency. That is what I have probably learned the most: you need to have a lot of years to be able to build something. It has been a very fun journey and I hope it will continue.&rdquo;
Someone who will, without doubt, continue to join him for the ride is Leif Olav Alnes &ndash; Warholm&rsquo;s coach and mentor since 2015, but above all, his friend.
&ldquo;Me and Leif, we are first of all really good friends and we spend a lot of time together,&rdquo; Warholm says. &ldquo;I really enjoy our relationship and what is good is our communication, I think that is probably the key. He is the brain, he is the architect behind this, and I am the machinery, so we work really well together.&rdquo; 
<img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61a90de8270a3642437f6334.jpeg" alt="" width="100%" />
 A dream team, and despite so much having already been achieved by the duo, there is plenty more to aim for in the next few years, with the World Athletics Championships in Oregon in 2022 and Budapest in 2023, and then the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
&ldquo;I like that there is a lot of championships coming up, because it keeps you on your toes and you know that there will always be a chance where you can perform,&rdquo; Warholm says. &ldquo;When you have the medals, everybody wants to be in your position, so all the guys are chasing me now. I need to be able to perform and it is all about putting in the work. But at the same time, it is also tough because you don&rsquo;t get a lot of time to restart the system.
&ldquo;What I was actually very surprised about is how tired you get after something like the Olympics. You spend so many years preparing for that moment and then it is like, boom, empty, right? It mostly motivates me to go out there and try to defend my titles. You can never promise anything, you don&rsquo;t know what you can do, but anything can happen and that is why we love the sport.&rdquo; 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-theme="dark">
"I&rsquo;m so happy for this," says newly crowned Male World Athlete of the Year <a href="https://twitter.com/kwarholm?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kwarholm</a>. "First when I saw the time [in Tokyo], I was like, &lsquo;This must be a mistake!&rsquo; Because I didn&rsquo;t see that one coming. And I didn&rsquo;t see the victory coming before crossing the finish line." <a href="https://t.co/BMCma5VmHy">pic.twitter.com/BMCma5VmHy</a>
&mdash; World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) <a href="https://twitter.com/WorldAthletics/status/1466112982010765324?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 1, 2021</a></blockquote>
 So those are his more immediate ambitions when it comes to the track, but how about his life aims in general?
&ldquo;It is difficult because right now, when you are an athlete, you are so focused that you forget that there is something coming after your career,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I sometimes think to myself that the only thing I know how to do is to run one lap with 10 hurdles!
&ldquo;What I can say is that I will always be good at getting over obstacles, and that is a nice thing to have on my resume. It&rsquo;s about finding a passion and that&rsquo;s what I like about where I am right now &ndash; this is my passion. Sometimes in an athletics career, you have to move on. It&rsquo;s a short career, and then I hope that I can find a new passion, something that I live and breathe for.
"I learn a lot from talking to people that are older than me because they have the life experience and it is funny to see how in life, there just comes chances and it is also about coincidences. It&rsquo;s just a coincidence that me and Leif met and we found a good tone. It is just about living and doing your best and a lot of things can happen, that is the fun part of it.&rdquo;
So, for now, he will continue to express that passion on the track &ndash; to train hard, compete and as a result, get recognised.
&ldquo;More people come to talk to me right now and take selfies, asking for autographs, especially children, and I like that, to be honest,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;Not just because of the recognition, that is one thing, but the other thing is I feel like I can inspire people somehow.
&ldquo;If you think about it, running 400m around a track and jumping over barriers, that is quite simple, but once you see what I see &ndash; what it gives to people and what they take from it &ndash; that is one of the things that makes it even more worth it for me.&rdquo;
Jess Whittington for World Athletics

It’s no surprise to hear that since the Tokyo Olympic Games, Norway’s men’s 400m hurdles champion and world record-holder Karsten Warholm has been receiving even more attention.