2024 Oslo Diamond League: Alison dos Santos wins 400m hurdles as home favourite Karsten Warholm stumbles at last hurdle

This wasn't the way it was supposed to go for Norway's 400m hurdles star Karsten Warholm.

Lining up in front of a raucous home crowd at the 2024 Oslo Diamond League on Thursday 30 May, the world record holder and Olympic champion was a strong favourite for victory in a race he loves to win.

But in the world of athletics, there are no dead certainties and this evening would belong to Brazil's Alison dos Santos, Warholm's fiercest rival heading into the Olympic Games Paris 2024, who crossed the line first in a world lead time of 46.63 seconds after relentlessly bearing down on his rival over the final 100m.

"This just proves to everyone that there is no home," Dos Santos, the 2022 world champion, told Olympics.com after the race. "No one is safe. No one has their own home where you're safe there. Me, Karsten, [Rai] Benjamin are not going to let any of the other runners get comfortable, they need to have the mindset that it's going to be tough every single day."

Warholm looked to be just edging the contest heading towards the finish line, until catching his foot on the final hurdle, which caused the three-time world champion to stumble before regaining his composure to end the race in a season's best 46.70. It was telling how fast the front two runners were that last year's world silver medallist Kyron McMaster was close to two seconds back in 48.49.

While Warholm will have been disappointed not to have won the race, the manner of the defeat will still give him confidence as he heads towards the most important races of the year - culminating in the opportunity to defend his Olympic title in the capital of France.

"I am on a very good path, I went out fast and I am working on my new stride pattern, 14/14 and I was pleased with how that went today," he said in a post-race interview. "It is only my second race of the season but I do always come to win so that is disappointing. But I am really looking forward to Rome [at next week's European Championships] which will be awesome and I can't wait."

Battle for Paris 2024 title still wide open as champions show their class

Many of the Oslo crowd gasped in disappointment as the result showed up on the scoreboard and they realised their home hero had not won. However, this was in many ways just a dress rehearsal for the Olympics, where Warholm and Dos Santos will almost certainly lock horns again in hopes of being crowned Olympic champion.

For Dos Santos, the Oslo Diamond League was another stepping stone towards that ultimate goal, as he works towards taking his place on the top step of the podium in Paris.

"I'm very excited about it," he said to Olympics.com, turning his attention to the upcoming Games. "I just use this competition as a preparation to get better to see the shape that you are in, it's exciting. You can run faster at the Olympic Games, you can run faster in Stockholm, you can get better in the next ones."

And with the prospect of a race without stumbles, the question of who will come out on top at Paris 2024 remains as open as ever.